Spring Hill fake bomb threat leads to ‘swatting’ call investigation
SPRING HILL, Tenn. (WKRN) — Spring Hill police are actively investigating a bomb scare that forced the evacuation of hundreds of people at a weekend boxing event. Police are now investigating the hoax as a swatting incident.
Swatting is a deliberate crank call that lures law enforcement to a location for potentially nefarious purposes.
News 2 obtained the 911 call from the incident Saturday night around 6:10 p.m. “I’m going to kill people,” the caller said.
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The caller told the 911 operator the pipe bombs were inside building 500 at the Northfield Lane facility which is the old Saturn HQ building near the GM Plant. It’s here where police said more than 500 boxing fans had gathered.
911: “Three in duffel bags?”
Caller: “Yes, three pipe bombs inside of duffel bags.”
Body cam from officers arriving from all over the city shows the level of seriousness used in treating the call.
Officer: “We got something going on over here.”
911: “We are going to find it and stop it.”
Caller: “No man.”
Believing the call could be real, officers left active calls around the city and swarmed the building.
911: “20 minutes ago?”
Caller: “No, I’m going to explode them within 20 minutes.”
The dangerous situation led to EMS and fire trucks arriving as well and video shows the Spring Hill SWAT team gearing up with AR-15s preparing to go in.
Officers met with the organizers of the event, who indicated they have had fights interrupted before by swatting calls.
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SHPD investigated the number and told News 2, it’s the same number that has been used to cause similar disturbances in other states from California to Nevada to New Jersey to Iowa.
Believing the call was fake, SHPD still evacuated the building and searched the 350,000-square-foot building out of an abundance of caution.
Captain Justin Whitwell told News 2 the 911 call sounded legitimate. “It sounded authentic. So we wanted to make sure we responded to this call appropriately.”
Officers searched the facility while keeping 650 people outside over the next three-plus hours.
“Anytime we get a call of this nature we are going to respond and we are going to handle it just like we would a bomb threat,” said Whitwell.
According to SHPD, a suspicious bag was located and x-rayed and found to be nothing dangerous.
“But of course, the officers must do their due diligence and gotta go in there and make sure the people in that building are safe,” Whitwell said.
Whitwell said a lot of city manpower was used on a threat that turned out to be a false call. And while officers were all busy in one location, Whitwell said officers in neighboring Williamson and Maury County helped answer Spring Hill’s other emergency calls.
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Some have called swatting a form of domestic terrorism. Whitwell agreed. “That’s exactly what it could be. But luckily in this event, everyone was cool, calm, and collected. Officers were able to search the area and deem it safe for everyone to go back in. And it turned out for the better, but there are plenty of events around the nation where that is not the case.”
Investigators told News 2, they are working on an active investigation and so far the number has come back to a landline in Kansas. But figuring out who made that call will still be challenging.
A local district attorney told News 2 if the perpetrator is ever found, he or she could be facing a Class C felony for making a false report involving a bomb threat. The penalty carries three to six years behind bars.
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