Updated 2:38 pm
Tisbury Police descended on Beach Street Extension on Wednesday around noon with rifles drawn for the report of an active shooter, which turned out to be a false alarm.
Tisbury Police Chief Chris Habekost said this was a “swatting,” which is when someone elicits an emergency response to another person’s address under false pretenses. The chief said that somebody had called in that there was an active shooter in the area. Habekost declined to say exactly where they were told an active shooter was, but police determined there was not a threat.
According to a press release issued by Tisbury Police on Wednesday afternoon, the Dukes County Regional Communications Center received a call at around 11:30 am from a worker at a crisis hotline saying there was a possible active shooter at Beach Street in Tisbury. The hotline received a message through an IP address that a 26-year-old had just killed his father and was pointing the gun at his mother.
Tisbury Police responded to the area to “corroborate any of the reports or to stop the threat to the public.” Police cleared the area of bystanders and “tactically approached the suspected address.”
After searching the building, speaking with its occupants, and speaking with witnesses in the area, police determined the call to be fake.
“No one reported hearing anything that sounded like gunshots or any other commotion. Officers continued to be vigilant in the surrounding area looking for anyone that could be watching their response to the call,” the release reads. “There is no duplicate address for this location and no further information received regarding this incident. The exact address is being withheld due to privacy concerns of the people there. Unfortunately, these fake calls have become more frequent and happen all around the country. Police Departments must investigate these calls as if they are real until deemed otherwise.”
Habekost told the Times his department will launch an investigation to find out who made the call.
Updated with additional details from Tisbury Police.
Shouldn’t having the IP address help?
Once located the perpetrator of the hoax should have to pay for all the extra police officers who were involved in responding.
It was only a matter of time until this happened here.
IP addresses are easy to spoof.
$20 a month.
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