Fake 911 Call Over Video Game Dispute Leads to Tense Scene

An argument during a video game turned into a “swatting” call for local law enforcement.

Chief Deputy Randy Noviskie of the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office reported that the incident happened around 6 p.m. on Friday, April 19. Noviskie said the Sheriff’s Office took a call from a distraught subject who said he stabbed his mother and was about to shoot his father at the new La Grange Springs Apartments at US 77 and FM 2145 just north of La Grange. The dispatcher then heard a gunshot and screaming in the background.

Deputies from the Sheriff’s Office along with La Grange Police Officers rushed to the apartments. Noviskie said a Sheriff’s sergeant quickly determined the call was a prank. Officers eventually learned that a young man in one of the apartments was playing an online multiplayer video game.

Noviskie said the young man had gotten into an argument with another player. He said investigators believe the other player determined where the young man lived and made the fictitious call to the Sheriff’s Office. The Sheriff’s Office tried tracing the call, and it appeared to have originated overseas. Investigators were not able to identify the caller.

This kind of dangerous harassment, known as “swatting,” gets its name from law enforcement Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) units. Perpetrators attempt to trigger a violent police response by reporting a false emergency at their victim’s address. They often use a “spoofed” phone number to prevent police from tracking them.

Sometimes, these swatting calls become deadly. A Witchita, Kansas, man was shot dead by police in 2017.

He was the unintended victim of a swatting incident that stemmed from a dispute between two people playing the video game Call of Duty: WWII.