By SUE SUCHYTA
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN — A man calling from an unknown phone number made a call to a non-emergency police line at 5:47 a.m. Nov. 28 claiming that he had just shot his mother at a house on Newton Street and that he planned to kill himself and any law enforcement personnel who responded.
Police officials suspected that it was a “swatting call,” a hoax made to emergency services with the intention of triggering a large response.
While police officers and emergency personnel responded to the scene, dispatch was able to call the registered owners of the address, who said no such circumstances had occurred at their home. The two adults met with police officers, who searched the home with their permission while their children slept upstairs.
The couple shared the name of a person whom they felt might have been motivated to make the swatting call and disrupt their lives.