Alyssa Milano Denies Calling Cops on Teen Hunting With Air Rifle

Alyssa Milano said she never called police to report a teenager allegedly hunting squirrels with [...]

By Daniel S. Levine

Alyssa Milano said she never called police to report a teenager allegedly hunting squirrels with an air gun on her property. Instead, the Charmed actress said her neighbor was the one who called 911 after seeing the stranger on her property, and her husband, Dave Bulgari, made a follow-up call. Right-wing social media users targeted Milano over the story because she supports defunding the police.

On Tuesday, Milano said she and her family were getting ready to watch the Giants game on Sept. 20 when their neighbor saw "a man dressed in all black, walking in the woods between our properties with a gun." Since this was a "rare sight" in their neighborhood, their neighbor was "understandably alarmed" and called police. They called Milano and Bulgari to let them know an officer was on the way. Bulgari called 911 again to confirm an officer was sent, and they arrived while he was on the phone, Milano wrote.

"The responding officers were amazing and made my family and I feel safe and secure as we 'sheltered in place' until we knew exactly what was happening," Milano wrote. "After searching the woods for some time, a man who fit the description called the police himself, to say he had been hunting squirrels in the area and apologized for the commotion he had caused." Milano thanked the Ventura County Sheriff's deputies and other officers who responded.

"These are exactly the type of situations that police officers are trained for and should be responding to, and we will always support police having the resources they need for appropriate policing actions," Milano wrote. "We'd love to see equally trained non-police professionals respond to addiction and mental health crises and non-violent events so that these brave officers can do the jobs they are good at handling, as they demonstrated this weekend."

Milano also shared screenshots of tweets from trolls she received while her family was in lockdown. "Do you see the seven police cars and the helicopters out there looking for the man with a RIFLE behind your house?" one troll wrote. "Do you still want to DEFUND them?? Thanks for putting us all in danger." That tweet has since been deleted. Another person called Milano a "hypocrite liberal" who was "wasting our tax money" by calling the police.

The actress also told other Twitter users it was a "lie" that her neighbors claimed she called police. "I never called the police. But I would have if I saw a guy with a gun in my backyard," Milano wrote to one supporter.

Milano is one of the most outspoken celebrity political activists on Twitter. Her new project is "Prom at the Polls," a grassroots student-led effort focused on giving students a unique prom experience and encouraging them to vote. She also has a new book, Hope: Project Class President coming out on Oct. 6. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Milano said it was "hurtful" to see attacks of her activism, but it will not stop her. She said anyone can be an activist, even if you don't have 1 million followers on Twitter.

"You can do it at your kitchen table, you can do it around your water cooler, you can do it, you know, on your neighborhood corner," she said. "We all have to take responsibility for our circles and hopefully, if enough of us do that, the circles will overlap and the world will be a better place because of that."

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