Fake emergency calls to 911 claiming someone has committed a violent crime is referred to as “Swatting.” The Hutchinson County Sheriff’s Office and Fritch Police are investigating who called in to report a shooting Thursday morning when the caller claimed to have shot and killed their mother. Authorities are working to identify who a minor in Fritch was playing a game of Fortnite with.
“I mean you’re playing with people across the country you’re playing with people across the world actually,” said Blaik Kemp, Sheriff of Hutchinson County.
Hutchinson County sheriff, Blaik Kemp tells ABC 7 News, minors who interact with a stranger in gaming platforms can result in an innocent person being injured or killed. Law Enforcement responded to a call after someone phoned in false information about a shooting.
“Something like that comes out multiple agencies responding to a call it’s a very armed response of course were going to be coming ready to address any threats that occurs,” said Kemp.
Due to the severity of something potentially bad happening to innocent people law enforcement wants to remind everyone out there to continue to have supervision with their children while their online in all hours of the day and night.
“I would just encourage parents to watch who their kids are talking to, watch what platforms their-on, and then how they communicate with other people because you never know who they are where they’re from,” said Kemp.
Kemp tells ABC 7 News, this marks the first time to investigate a Swatting incident as sheriff of Hutchinson county and multiple agencies are looking into who called and reported a shooting claiming to have killed someone while high on a drug.
“Will continue to investigate it as far as we can, if we got to get the federal government to help us out we can,” said Kemp. “I don’t know how far it will go but will do all that we can to exhaust all our options.”
Law Enforcement ask is there is anyone out there that thinks that they have information pertaining to this case to contact the Fritch Police Department or the Hutchinson County Sheriff’s Office.
Data from the FBI shows there are around 400 Swatting a calls a year that are investigated by law enforcement.