\u201cIt was insane. It\u2019s something that\u2019s straight out of a movie. I mean, this isn\u2019t the neighborhood where we see things like that,” John Cruz said.<\/p>\n
ARLINGTON, Texas \u2014 Police lights filled the 1700 block of Martin Luther Drive Monday night in Arlington after a false 911 call sent SWAT officers rushing into a neighborhood unaccustomed to that kind of chaos.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was insane. It\u2019s something that\u2019s straight out of a movie. I mean, it\u2019s\u2014this isn\u2019t the neighborhood where we see things like that,” John Cruz said.<\/p>\n
He and other neighbors watched as officers in tactical gear surrounded a home after a caller told dispatchers they had shot two people inside that address.<\/p>\n
\u201cFive to 10 minutes before they showed up, I was out here smoking a cigarette,” said Marvis L. He told WFAA that officers began asking him questions as they secured the block.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey asked me, did he have any kids, young kids there? I said, \u2018No, he stay by himself,” said Marivs.<\/p>\n
Arlington police said the fake 911 call came in around 9:50 p.m. Monday. Officers set up a perimeter and used their PA system to order anyone inside to come out, but there was no response.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Eventually police knocked on Marvis’ front door to tell his family to evacuate. Officers sent them down the street for safety reasons after informing them that they had not gotten a response after from his neighbor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told them myself, if he\u2019s in the back, he probably can\u2019t hear you,” Marvis said.<\/p>\n
Homeowner Decory Diggins told WFAA through his attorney that he is not doing interviews at this time, but he showed a side window he says officers broke out before they came through his front door. Police found Diggins and his companion in the back family room watching TV before ordering them outside.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That put Diggin’s neighbors a little more at ease. Especially since they hardly ever see police on their street for emergencies like this.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it startled me. It really did, because I\u2019ve never seen that amount of presence here in this neighborhood,” Cruz said.<\/p>\n
Neighbors learned from Diggins that the full call out to SWAT to his house was part of someone’s prank. Police confirmed with WFAA that it was a Swatting call. It’s a fake emergency call meant to send police or a SWAT team to someone\u2019s home or business.<\/p>\n
Arlington police said swatting is not a joke and it\u2019s not funny. The department said it can greatly impact victims who are unknowingly placed in situations where officers may surround or even enter their homes believing there is a critical emergency inside.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to the Anti-Defamation League, about 1,000 swatting incidents occur nationwide each year, with each false report costing communities thousands of dollars in emergency response resources. The FBI has acknowledged a rise in these calls in recent years and launched a national database in 2023 to better track them, though the agency has not yet released an official annual total.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy do it? You wouldn\u2019t want to do it to your family,” Marvis said.<\/p>\n
He said he hopes whoever made the false call is caught and held accountable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt was insane. It\u2019s something that\u2019s straight out of a movie. I mean, this isn\u2019t the neighborhood where…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151],"class_list":["post-13024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}