Biddeford police received a call on the department’s business line shortly before 11 a.m. Sunday from a man who said he had shot his parents and locked his girlfriend in the bathroom of his apartment at 41 Clifford St.
“Within a minute, we received a second call from the same number, with the same voice, saying he had explosives in the apartment and that if officers attempted to enter he would explode the device,” said Chief Roger Beaupre.
Beaupre said officers surrounded the building and blocked traffic to the area before determining the call was a swatting hoax and the tenant of the apartment knew nothing about the call.
Swatting is the term for a hoax emergency call designed to draw a large law enforcement response that may include SWAT teams.
This was the first ever swatting call in Biddeford, but was very similar to swatting incidents last week in Standish and New Hampshire, Beaupre said. Police will now try to determine where the Biddeford call came from and if it is connected to the other two calls.
On July 5, the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call saying a man had killed his girlfriend and was holding her parents hostage in a Standish home. Police, including a SWAT team, surrounded the home and handcuffed three adults before determining the family that lived there knew nothing about the call.
The following morning, police in Rochester, New Hampshire, responded to a similar call in which a man said he had a hostage, then told police he had shot that person. After evacuating several homes and closing down Route 202 near the Maine state line, Rochester police determined the call was a swatting incident, likely made by someone from out of state.
The FBI first became aware of the swatting phenomenon in 2008 and the agency now provides resources and guidance for local police departments dealing with the prank calls.
High-profile swatting calls on the West Coast have targeted celebrities, including Clint Eastwood, Justin Bieber and Ashton Kutcher. Many calls around the country have been directed toward video gamers who participate in livestreams in front of large online audiences while they play from their homes.
After Biddeford dispatchers took the call on Sunday, they immediately began trying to trace the number it came from and to locate the tenant of the apartment referenced in the call. Police called the man, who Beaupre described as a clean-cut 22-year-old man with no criminal history who recently moved to Biddeford.
“He had no clue what was going on,” Beaupre said. “We talked him through simply walking out of his apartment to waiting officers.”
Eight officers from Biddeford and several from Saco responded to the incident, but they did not bring in a SWAT team because the call was deemed a hoax, Beaupre said.
Biddeford police continue to investigate the source of the call and will consult with the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office and Rochester Police Department.
“Hopefully this is not a trend,” Beaupre said.
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