Fort Worth police were sent to a call about a hostage shooting. But it wasn’t real

Six police units were sent to a home in north Fort Worth on Sunday night for what seemed like a dangerous situation.

The 911 call made at around 8 p.m. was transferred from the Keller Police Department. The caller claimed “he has 5 hostages, has already shot one of them, and is demanding 5,000 dollars,” according to a police report.

Soon after officers arrived, they learned the call was false, or “swatting,” police later confirmed.

Swatting happens when someone makes a call to a police department with a false story of an ongoing crime — often with killing or hostages involved — in an attempt to draw a large number of police officers to a particular address.

Swatting has gained traction across the country with online gamers. Those who try to cause the swatting incident will use caller ID spoofing or other techniques to disguise their number as being local. Or they call local non-emergency numbers instead of 911, according to 911.gov.

The swatting call in Fort Worth happened in the 4300 block of Waterstone Road, in the Keller subdivision Steadman Farms.

There were no reported injuries and within an hour, all but one of the officers sent to the call were back patrolling.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation estimates there are roughly 400 cases of swatting a year.

One of those cases happened on Dec. 28 when the Wichita Police Department in Kansas was sent to a home after a man called dispatch to say they had killed their father and were holding a sibling and their mother hostage in a closet.

When police got to the home, Andrew Finch, 28, opened his front door. His mother, Lisa, told reporters the day after the shooting that Finch wanted to see what was happening outside. About 10 seconds later, an officer who was positioned across the street shot Finch once, killing him.

The officer, later identified as Justin Rapp, said he believed Finch had a gun in his hand after ignoring commands to raise his arms. Rapp — and the dozen other officers at the scene — didn’t know the call was false until after the shooting, police said. The district attorney months later announced that Rapp would not face charges.

Tyler Barriss, a 25-year-old from Los Angeles, was arrested the next day and later charged with making a false report. A feud between two online gamers fighting over a Call of Duty match with a $1.50 wager led Barriss to make the call, according to reports.

The two gamers involved in the match — Casey Viner and Shane Gaskill — also face charges.

Finch was not involved in the video game, police said.

This story was originally published September 30, 2018 at 9:11 PM.