LEWISTON, ID – A months-long investigation into alleged “swatting calls” has culminated in the arrest of a 15-year-old Whitman County boy. According to a press release from the Lewiston Police Department, numerous law enforcement agencies were reportedly called by the Garfield boy this year. In this region, the hoax calls were received by LPD, the Clarkston Police Department, and the Moscow Police Department.
The unidentified teen was arrested by Whitman County Sheriff’s deputies yesterday on a Nez Perce County warrant for Accessory to False Reports of Explosives in Public or Private Places. A search warrant was also served on his residence.
Detective Zach Thomas’ investigation began on June 19th after the Lewiston Police Department received a call from a person claiming to have taken a 5-year-old child hostage at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center.
“The caller said he was going to slit the 5-year-old’s throat and shoot anyone who showed up. The caller then described the handgun and amount of
ammunition he had with him. Approximately nine Lewiston Police Department officers responded to SJRMC and placed the hospital on lockdown while officers investigated the incident,” the press release says.
The call was determined to be a hoax after an extensive search of the hospital.
The same phone number was allegedly used to call LPD dispatch on June 20th.
“This time, the caller said he had placed pressure cooker bombs outside the police department. The caller also said he had an accomplice outside the department who would shoot the dispatcher who took the call and made a series of lewd comments to the dispatcher,” LPD says.
In total, LPD received six phone calls from this number over a three-day period.
The boy was identified after Detective Thomas served search warrants for various Electronic Service Providers such as Google.
“Det. Thomas found the suspect was involved in an online chat with another user and this suspect encouraged the other user to make the calls to the Lewiston Police Department. The suspect provided the Lewiston Police Department phone number and SJRMC’s address. The suspect also coached the other user in how to use a Virtual Private Network to mask his location,” the press release adds.
The investigation indicated the Garfield boy had called, or had been an accomplice to, these types of calls to other agencies this year, including the San Marcos Police Department (Texas)
Catskills Police Department (New York)
Prineville Police Department (Oregon)
Auburn Hills Police Department (Michigan)
Orion Township Police Department (Mississippi)
New Orleans Police Department (Louisiana)
Chicago Police Department (Illinois)
New York Police Department (New York)
Houston Police Department (Texas)
Honolulu Police Department (Hawaii)
Irving Police Department (Texas)
The boy also claimed in online chats that he had engaged in this activity for years and had even advertised to other users that he was willing to commit these acts for money, LPD says.
“It is difficult to calculate the amount of resources that were wasted by these calls, as well as impossible to quantify how the public’s safety was jeopardized while law enforcement officers were unable to carry out their duties because they were responding to these hoaxes,” the press release says.
The investigation reportedly found that the boy utilized digital tools such as soundboards that play the sound of gunshots and screams.
“Those dispatchers listen to very real calls from people experiencing the worst days of their lives. Dispatchers have had to listen to people committing suicide on the phone. Dispatchers have had to listen to other people being physically beaten and killed on the phone. Dispatchers in the moment have no way of knowing what is “just a prank” and what is real,” Detective Thomas says in his charging document.
