Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was the goal of a swatting try at her Georgia residence on Christmas morning, the congresswoman and native police mentioned, marking the newest occasion of somebody calling in a faux emergency to attract armed officers to her house.
The Rome Police Division rapidly verified that the decision was a hoax and didn’t ship officers to the home, division spokesperson Kelly Madden mentioned.
“I used to be simply swatted. That is just like the eighth time. On Christmas with my household right here. My native police are the GREATEST and shouldn’t must cope with this,” Greene wrote in a put up on X, previously Twitter.
A person in New York referred to as the Georgia suicide hotline simply earlier than 11 a.m. Monday, claiming that he had shot his girlfriend at Greene’s house and was going to kill himself subsequent, Madden mentioned. The decision was rapidly transferred to police when suicide hotline responders acknowledged the Georgia congresswoman’s tackle.
The division mentioned it contacted Greene’s non-public safety element to substantiate she was secure and that there was no emergency at her residence. The decision was then decided to be a swatting try, so the police response was canceled en route, Madden defined.
“We decided earlier than our personnel may get to her location that there was no emergency and there was no cause to reply,” she mentioned. “Her safety element had all of it below management, and there really was nothing happening.”
The congresswoman, who represents the cities of Rome, Dalton and Calhoun in northwest Georgia, spent her first time period stripped of committee assignments by the previous Home Democratic majority over racist feedback, her embrace of conspiracy theories and her previous endorsement of violence in opposition to Democratic officers. She has since gained extra affect below the Home’s present Republican management and continues to be a firebrand for the far-right.
Greene’s assertion that she has been the goal of roughly eight swatting makes an attempt is correct, Madden mentioned. Previous calls claimed that lifeless our bodies had been discovered within the bathtub tub and in different areas of her house, which is positioned about 70 miles (113 kilometers) northwest of Atlanta. Police additionally responded final 12 months to false experiences of shootings exterior her residence.
The division mentioned it despatched officers to the home in response to these prior incidents however has since shaped an in depth working relationship with Greene’s safety element, which permits officers to higher assess the risk degree.
The division’s felony investigations division is working to determine Monday’s caller and construct a case, Madden mentioned.
One other New York man was sentenced to a few months in jail in August for making threatening cellphone calls to Greene’s Washington, D.C., workplace.