Law enforcement agencies investigating swatting calls across multiple counties - WKYT

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - Police agencies in several Kentucky communities have been responding to fake calls to 911. We’ve learned of six happening in four separate counties on Thursday alone.

We know at least four of the six we heard about Thursday were calls about a shooting. One in Lexington, one in Bath County, and two in Madison County.

Deputies in Madison County said their calls came in right around the same time as the other two. Both of the Madison County calls came from the same number, and the situation was the same.

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Police rushed to a home in Lexington Thursday, responding to what they had been told was a shooting, but nobody was even at the home. Around the same time, deputies in Bath County were called to a scene of a shooting, but there was nothing even there.

“These swatting calls or fake 911 calls, whatever you want to call them, have dire consequences,” Representative Phillip Pratt said.

That’s why Pratt filed legislation this year to make swatting a felony in Kentucky.

“It was a misdemeanor, and a $25 fine. Most of these calls come in from out of state. They’re not local. You couldn’t at that point in time for a misdemeanor go across state lines,” Rep. Pratt said.

Pratt filed the bill in response to swatting calls around Scott County. One instance shook a family so much, they moved away from the community.

“This wasn’t anything to do with Scott County. They said they just couldn’t put that incident behind them,” Pratt said.

On Wednesday, deputies in Rowan County responded to fake calls at Morehead State and St. Claire. Two more were confirmed Thursday, targeting the fire department and Rowan County Schools.

While no one has been hurt in any of these calls, Pratt worries it could happen, saying it has been the case in other places.

“There was a gentleman in Wichita, Kansas that fake 911 call was called in that basically said, ‘I’ve killed someone, I’ve got hostages,’ he walked out on his front porch, police thought he was armed, shot him dead on his front porch,” Pratt said.

It’s an alarming and dangerous trend that police say is no laughing matter.

The swatting law doesn’t go into effect until July 1. Pratt said knowing now that these calls are picking up, he wishes he had put an emergency clause so that the law would have been effective once the governor signed it.

It’s unclear right now if any of these calls could be related, but Madison County deputies said they’ll be in touch with Lexington police and Bath County deputies to determine that.

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source: https://www.wkyt.com/2022/04/21/lexington-police-investigating-swatting-call-amid-increase-across-state/

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