Swatting is a term that describes when someone makes a false reports about possibly dangerous situations to law enforcement in order to harass someone else.
Credit: Montgomery County Jail
Credit: Montgomery County Jail
According to an affidavit, at 9:20 a.m. on Tuesday, Murphy allegedly called 911 to say that a 5-year-old student at Emerson Academy had a gun in his backpack.
Police said that the child was Murphy’s son, and he does not have custody of the child. During the call, Murphy gave his name as the boy’s uncle on his mother’s side, the affidavit said.
Officers determined that the boy didn’t have a gun.
At 10:37 a.m., Murphy called back into dispatch angry that the school was not evacuated, the affidavit said.
Police said in the affidavit that this isn’t the first time Murphy claimed that the child had a gun.
Murphy “continues to make these same allegations multiple times with police having responded to the school and [the 5-year-old’s] residence,” the affidavit said.
Murphy was arrested with the phone used to make the 911 calls, police said.
According to court records, Murphy was granted conditional bond. He will be on electronic home detention and is forbidden from calling 911 or the school from any phone.
He is scheduled to be back in court Oct. 4.
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