Crime
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene 'swatted' by trans activist
Swatting is a prank where someone calls law enforcement and falsely reports a crime in progress, usually violent, with the hopes of triggering a massive emergency response
August 24, 2022 12:55pm
Updated: August 24, 2022 2:08pm
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) tweeted Wednesday that she had been “swatted,” a dangerous hoax where a caller tricks law enforcement into storming someone’s home by reporting a serious crisis, an incident police confirmed and say may have been politically motivated.
“Last night, I was swatted just after 1 am,” Greene tweeted on her official profile.
“I can’t express enough gratitude to my local law enforcement here in Rome, Floyd County.”
Last night, I was swatted just after 1 am.
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) August 24, 2022
I can’t express enough gratitude to my local law enforcement here in Rome, Floyd County.
More details to come.
The Rome City Police Department confirmed to FOX 5 Atlanta that officers responded to a 911 call around 1:00 a.m. reporting someone had been shot multiple times at an address in the city, which they discovered was the Georgia Republican’s home.
“When officers responded, they discovered this was the home of Marjorie Taylor Greene. She assured the officers there was no issue and the call was determined to be a false call commonly known as ‘swatting,’” read the statement.
JUST IN: Rome Police confirm there was a swatting incident at @RepMTG's home overnight and it appears to have been politically motivated. @FOX5Atlanta #gapol pic.twitter.com/Uns7dkWpvh
— Claire Simms (@Claire_FOX5) August 24, 2022
The suspect, who was using a computer-generated voice, called 911 again after the incident and stated he/she was “upset at Mrs. Greene’s political views on transgender youth rights,” according to the statement.
Swatting is a dangerous prank where someone calls law enforcement and falsely reports a crime in progress, usually violent, with the hopes of triggering a massive emergency response on an unsuspecting victim.
Police tend to arrive heavily armed or with a SWAT team, which has resulted in several deaths.
Swatting often stems from squabbles online, such as a 2020 incident where an innocent 60-year-old man was swatted and accidentally killed by police because he did not want to sell his valuable @Tennessee Twitter handle.
In 2018, a California man reported a fake hostage situation to Kansas police after an argument in the video game Call of Duty, who killed an innocent man when they responded.
Rome police said the investigation was active and they had no further details to share.
