A family in El Paso County,Texas was terrified yesterday when they were raided by a SWAT team as the result of a false 911 call:

An El Paso County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson says the hostage situation was a false alarm triggered by a fake report of a shooting at a home.  A caller told deputies that they had shot someone and had more people tied up.  When crews arrived at the scene, they discovered that the call came from elsewhere.

There are no detailed accounts of what transpired here, but it was very clear that the call was a hoax.

This particularly deadly kind of hoax, or course,  can get people shot and killed.

John Crawford III was gunned down by a Beavercreek, OH police officer as the result of what we still think was a SWATting call and a botched police response (despite the fact the SWATter was never charged, nor the officer who shot Crawford without warning).

The police chief of Sentinel, Oklahoma was shot multiple times earlier this year as he raided a home due to a SWATting call. The home owner did not hear the law enforcement officers identify themselves as they forced their way into the home, and thought that he was the victim of a home invasion and shot the officer. Fortunately, no one was killed, and the home owner wasn’t charged. The man who phoned in that threat was charged with a felony.

We hope that the person who made the SWATting call in Texas is captured and faces a similar charges for putting this family at risk.