An 11-year-old boy was arrested in Virginia last week, charged with calling in more than 20 swatting calls to schools in Florida and other places.
Swatting is making fake calls to emergency services to prompt a massive response from SWAT teams or other armed officers.
The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office said the arrest followed a 10-week investigation after a series of threats to schools in that Florida county in May. The threats began on May 14 when officials got a bomb threat for Buddy Taylor Middle School. Twenty more threats of bombs or shooting followed for that school and others in the the county, including First Baptist Christian Academy, Flagler Palm Coast High School, Old Kings Elementary School, and Suncoast Community School
The calls were made to the Flagler County Communications Center, the Volusia Sheriff’s Office Communications Center, and the Lincoln Emergency Communications Center in Nebraska.
“In each, the caller made claims that a bomb or bombs had been placed; threatened to commit a mass shooting; or stated that they had just shot a teacher, student, or multiple people,” the sheriff’s office said.
Detectives ultimately traced the calls to the home of the 11-year-old boy in Henrico, Virginia, and Henrico County Police served a search warrant there. When detectives interviewed the boy, he admitted placing the calls against Flagler schools as well as another one against the Maryland State House.
“[He] stated he used methods he had learned online in an attempt to circumvent law enforcement and hide his identity,” the sheriff’s office said. “He also stated that he devised the script he used for his calls and acted alone.”
Investigators reviewed the boy’s electronics and found evidence corroborating the investigation, but the child had “physically removed the hard drive” from his laptop to destroy evidence. They also learned that the had made other similar swatting calls throught Florida and elsewhere in the country.
The boy was arrested on 14 counts of false report concerning a bomb, 14 counts of unlawful use of a two-way communication device, tampering with physical evidence, and 14 counts of disrupting a school function. The child is being held at a juvenile detention facility in Virginia while Florida authorities work to have him extradited to Florida.
“With school coming up in less than a month, I know that the status of this investigation was on the forefront of our community’s mind, which is why our detectives never stopped working to find the person responsible for terrorizing our students, parents, teachers, and our community,” said Sheriff Staly. “This kid’s behavior was escalating and becoming more dangerous. I’m glad we got him before he escalated out of control and hurt someone.”
A 13-year-old boy was previously arrested in Florida for a threat to Buddy Taylor Middle School in May. That threat was determined to be a copycat of the original call by the Virginia boy.
Late last month, a Texas teen was charged with making more than 100 such swatting calls to locations in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, West Virginia, North Carolina, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Tennessee, and Wisconsin, as CrimeOnline reported.
But children are not the only perpetrators of the dangerous prank calls. In February, an Alabama police office was charged with making multiple swatting calls — while on duty — because he “thought it was funny.” Alabama authorities didn’t think it was that serious, though, and charged him with misdemeanors and gave him a $6,000 bond.
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[Featured image: Shutterstock]
