A 15-year-old from Kitchener, Ont., faces 29 felony charges after police investigated a string of swatting calls that threatened public security.
Swatting is when somebody calls in a false report with the intention of eliciting a big police presence.
In a press convention on Monday, Insp. Kyle Lambert with the Waterloo Regional Police Service (WRPS) mentioned police acquired 13 swatting calls between Could and October of this yr. The calls threatened violence, however have been in the end confirmed to be false.
“Whereas the threats have been empty, the hurt that they precipitated was not,” Lambert mentioned.
“What was not false have been the true and dangerous results these swatting incidents had on public security and the notion of security in our group.”
The primary name was on Could 29, when somebody threatened to convey a handgun to St. Mary’s Excessive Faculty in Kitchener. The college was closed that day and the subsequent whereas police investigated. Finally, police reported the threats have been fabricated.
Over the course of the subsequent 5 months, 12 extra calls have been made, Lambert mentioned.
They included different threats of shootings at Cameron Heights Collegiate Institute, at a Canada Day celebration in Kitchener’s Victoria Park, in addition to threats to convey an explosive to a Kitchener enterprise and shoot a household of their residence.
“In every of those cases, the police response was swift and intensive and decided that each single report was false,” Lambert mentioned.
“Frontline patrol officers responded to each incident of those false studies, diverting their consideration from different requires service and putting a pressure on emergency providers assets.”
The unnamed 15-year-old male faces the next charges:
Eight counts of public mischief. Eight counts of uttering threats of demise. Two counts of mischief – interfering with lawful enjoyment of property. 5 counts of Occasion to the Offence of public mischief. 4 counts of Occasion to the Offence of uttering threats to trigger demise. Two counts of Occasion to the Offence of felony harassment.
The teenager, who can’t be named beneath the Youth Legal Justice Act, is presently in police custody and is because of seem in court docket Dec. 6.
