Full Notification

PRESS RELEASE
On Saturday, April 11, 2015, at 4:09pm the Port Neches Police Dept. received a call from an address in the 2400 block of Saba Ln. in reference to a possible shooting. The male caller stated that he had just shot his mother and she was not breathing. The caller went on to say that he had strapped a bomb to his 21 yoa daughter and he was in possession of a fully loaded AR-15 assault rifle. The caller called the dispatcher on a non-emergency line and gave his phone number and the address directly to the dispatcher. The phone number and the caller I.D. number did not match. Officers were dispatched to the residence and set up a safety zone away from the residence in question. Dispatchers made repeated attempts to recontact the caller and were unsuccessful. The Jefferson County S.W.A.T. team was called to the scene to assist officers and provide additional resources. After numerous attempts to get a response from inside the residence failed, SWAT officers utilized an armored vehicle to approach the residence and used a loud speaker to contact a subject inside. A male exited the residence and was taken into custody without further incident. A search of the residence was conducted and officers determined that there had not been a shooting, there were no weapons located and there was not anyone else in the residence. With the assistance of Central dispatchers, investigators determined that the original phone call was placed by an internet-based caller. This is commonly known as “swatting, or caller I.D. spoofing” whereby a person places a false emergency call by using a false number to get a mass response by first responders to a critical incident that does not exist. The male subject taken into custody was interviewed by investigators and was released. At this time, no charges have been filed and investigators will attempt to locate the origin of the original internet-based phone call.