ROCHESTER, Minn. – Rochester police were duped into dispatching a SWAT team by a fake report of a shooting and a holed-up gunman in a southwest residential neighborhood. They set up a perimeter about 10:30 p.m. and shouted with a megaphone to rouse anyone inside to come out. A 44-year-old man, unarmed and befuddled, emerged and gave police permission to enter. Meanwhile, the call that set the SWAT team into action had been traced at police headquarters to an internet address in Australia. It had been a fake call – something cops call “SWAT-ing.” What happened:
> A police dispatcher received an emergency message from a person claiming to have shot his uncle and that the uncle was no longer breathing. The caller said he had an AR-15 rifle and would shoot police if they approached.
> Police calls to the address, in the 3500 block of Birchwood Lane Southwest, went unanswered.
> The man at the house speculated that a nephew living in another state played a lot of online video games with other players throughout the world might have upset someone enough to prompt the SWAT-ing.
> Why hadn’t the man answered police calls while the SWAT team was en route? His cell phone was turned off for the night, he said.
> Investigators are working to identify the responsible party. Police spokesperson Casey Moilanen said it unlikely came from Australia.