The family home of Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg was the target of a “swatting” hoax Tuesday morning when someone called in a false hostage situation at the address.
BSO SWAT team at David Hogg’s house in Parkland after a hoax call that family was being held hostage.. again hoax swatting call #MSDstrong #neveragain pic.twitter.com/JriKE8nOQX
— jeff weinsier (@jweinsier) June 5, 2018
Emergency services, including several Broward County Sheriff’s units, a police helicopter and Coral Springs Fire Rescue, responded to the call and found no hostage situation, Local 10 ABC reports. Hogg, an outspoken activist, was in Washington, D.C. to accept the RFK Human Rights award.
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The prank call reported a stabbed and barricaded person at the Parkland home owned by Kevin Hogg, David Hogg’s father, according to CBS Miami. Sheriff’s spokeswoman Gina Carter told the news outlet that deputies investigated and determined the call to be a hoax. The scene was cleared around 10 a.m.
The hoax also led to lockdowns of two nearby elementary schools, CBS Miami reports.
Placing a call resulting in a swatting hoax can carry a felony charge for the caller. Incidents like Tuesday’s have ended deadly in the past for targets. “Swatting” hoaxes are named for the SWAT teams or similar emergency crews that respond to such fake tips; they’ve become a staple of politically-charged online feuds.
Hogg called the prank call a “distraction” from what he’s trying to to achieve in his recent ventures into social change.
“I think it’s really a distraction from what we’re trying to fix here,” Hogg told Local 10. “Which is the massive gun violence epidemic in this country.”
Hogg and his family received multiple death threats in the weeks following the Stoneman Douglas shooting, and they have approached the FBI with hopes of prosecuting those who have threatened them.
Hogg has been a prominent advocate for gun safety and gun control since the shootings at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in February. He has also served as a lightning rod for controversy, as some do not approve of his opinions or methods, such as the time he held a “die in” at a grocery store last week.
Hogg’s mother, Rebecca Boldrick, revealed in April that Hogg would be postponing college to pursue politics, even though she says he was accepted into the University of California, Irvine.
“He will not be going to college this year because he’s decided to take a year off and work the midterm elections,” Boldrick told CNN. She said that his hope is to help educate young voters and “get people to vote.”
