Washington teen arrested on felony charges of ‘swatting’ calls to police agencies across US, including Prineville
LEWISTON, Idaho (KTVZ) - A 15-year-old Garfield, Washington boy was arrested last week on a Nez Perce County, Idaho felony arrest warrant, accused of a series of hoax "swatting" calls to law enforcement agencies this year, including to the Prineville Police Department.
Here's the full text of a Nov. 14 news release from the Lewiston Police Department:
The teen's arrest on charges of accessory to false reports of explosives in public or private places was the result of Det. Zach Thomas’ investigation which began on June 19, when Lewiston Police received a call from a person claiming to have taken a 5-year-old child hostage at the Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center (SJRMC).
The caller said he was going to slit the 5-year-old's throat and shoot anyone who showed up. The caller then described the handgun and amount of ammunition he had with him. About nine Lewiston Police Department officers responded to SJRMC and placed the hospital on lockdown while officers investigated the incident. The call was determined to be a hoax after an extensive search of the facility.
The same phone number was used to call LPD dispatch on June 20, 2024. This time, the caller said he had placed pressure cooker bombs outside the police department. The caller also said he had an accomplice outside the department who would shoot the dispatcher who took the call and made a series of lewd comments to the dispatcher.
The Lewiston Police Department received six phone calls from this number between 06/19/24 and 06/21/24.
Det. Thomas identified the suspect through a series of search warrants for information from various Electronic Service Providers such as Google. Det. Thomas found the suspect was involved in an online chat with another user and this suspect encouraged the other user to make the calls to the Lewiston Police Department.
The suspect provided the Lewiston Police Department phone number and SJRMC’s address. The suspect also coached the other user in how to use a Virtual Private Network to mask his location.
Det. Thomas’s investigation indicated the 15-year-old Garfield boy had called, or had been an accomplice to, these type of calls, referred to as “swatting calls,” to the following agencies in the United States in 2024.
- San Marcos Police Department Texas
- Moscow Police Department Idaho
- Clarkston Police Department Washington
- Catskills Police Department, New York
- Prineville Police Department, Oregon
- Auburn Hills Police Department, Michigan
- Orion Township Police Department, Mississippi
- New Orleans Police Department, Louisiana
- Chicago Police Department, Illinois
- New York Police Department, New York
- Houston Police Department, Texas
- Honolulu Police Department, Hawaii
- Irving Police Department, Texas
The boy also claimed in online chats that he had engaged in this activity for years and had even advertised to other users that he was willing to commit these acts for money.
It is difficult to calculate the amount of resources that were wasted by these calls, as well as impossible to quantify how the public's safety was jeopardized while law enforcement officers were unable to carry out their duties because they were responding to these hoaxes.
Det. Thomas also found evidence of digital tools such as sound boards that play the sound of gunshots and screams which were used to make the calls seem real to dispatchers. Det. Thomas noted in his charging document, “Those dispatchers listen to very real calls from people experiencing the worst days of their lives. Dispatchers have had to listen to people committing suicide on the phone.
Dispatchers have had to listen to other people being physically beaten and killed on the phone.
Dispatchers in the moment have no way of knowing what is "just a prank" and what is real.”
The Whitman County Sheriff’s Office assisted in the arrest of the boy, and the execution of a search warrant on his home.
