GEORGETOWN TWP, MI (WHTC) – Ottawa County Sheriff’s were dispatched to a home in Georgetown Township in what authorities are determining to be a case of swatting.
Swatting is when a fake call and report are made intending to draw an emergency police response.
In this case, it happened at a home belonging to Bob Hoorn in the 4000 block of Marion Street in Georgetown Township.
Hoorn was taking is dog for a walk when he received a call from authorities. A person had just called Ottawa County dispatchers claiming to be at Hoorn’s home and said he had shot his girlfriend in the head. Dispatchers were also told the person planned to tie up two kids in the home, shoot them and shoot police if they responded.
Deputies responded to the home to speak with Hoorn and were gone in less than an hour. Hoorn said his child does not play video games and he does not know why his house was targeted. Sometimes swatting can be done through the internet or a video game played online.
Several area schools have been targets of swatting since last year. Coopersville, Hudsonville, Allendale and Rockford.
In 2014 of August, a person who described himself as a depressed 14-year-old told Ottawa County emergency dispatchers he’d shot both his parents in the head and tied up his brother at a Robinson Township home. Investigators determined that call a hoax.
– Mary Ellen Murphy
