Police injustice can swing both ways on the pendulum.
When the law enforcement fail to act promptly it could lead to lives being lost. But when quick responders rush into a hoax, it also sheds light on a different kind of injustice. To the community being served.
SWAT teams along with local police and paramedics out of Long Beach, N.Y. responded to call they received around 3 p.m. yesterday (April 21) from a man apparently admitting he had shot down his entirely family.
As cruel fate would have it, it was just an online gamer participating in “swatting,” a revenge tactic used against an opponent who had just washed them in an intense game of Call of Duty. The FBI is now saying it’s becoming a nationwide epidemic.
Reports CBSNewYork:
“Everybody was scared to death,” a neighbor who watched the police response for two hours told 1010 WINS’ Sonia Rincon.
A 17-year-old boy who was playing the video game “Call of Duty” inside the house was the apparent victim of the prank, Rincon reported. He had been playing against someone else online, police said.
n the game of Swatting, the losers of the video game get back at the winner by faking an emergency call from the winner’s house, Rincon reported.
“In this … bizarre world of Swatting, you get points for the helicopter, for the police cars, for the SWAT team, for the type of entry,” said Michael Tagney, Long Beach police commissioner. “It’s very sophisticated. Unfortunately, it’s very dangerous.”
Investigators are searching for the man who placed the call. The culprit, who made the call using the Internet and could be anywhere in the world, could face criminal charges and have to foot the bill for the massive police response.
“I don’t know why the people called the police,” Maria Castillo, the mother of the video game-playing teen, told Rincon, her voice trembling.
Check out the photos of SWAT rushing to the scene in the gallery. How did they get the teenager’s home address anyway? Surely it was somebody he already knew.
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Photo: CBS2, ABC7
