Allen County Sheriff Bryan Murphy said Thursday that deputies were sent to a residence in Gas early Wednesday evening for what they said amounted to a “swatting” report.
The incident occurred after officers received a report of a man threatening his wife and brandishing a gun, Murphy said. A few minutes later, it was reported that the man was holding his wife hostage at gunpoint, saying he was going to kill her at a certain time.
When the first deputy arrived, he found nothing amiss, and as Murphy and more officers arrived, it was found that the call was allegedly made by the woman’s mother in Sacramento, who does not like her daughter’s husband, deputies said. One person was temporarily detained while the initial investigation was done.
Murphy said there was never anyone in danger and that he was looking into possible charges against the woman in California.
“We take swatting issues very seriously,” he said in a press release. “Not only does a situation like this waste emergency responder time and resources for not just our department but for other agencies that were preparing to respond as well. In addition, the children in the home were unnecessarily traumatized, and we don’t know what long-lasting effects that could have on them.”
Swatting is described as an action or practice of making a prank call to emergency services in an attempt to bring about the dispatch of a large number of armed police officers to a particular address.
