BRUNSWICK, Ohio – An unidentified man made a hoax phone call to the Brunswick Police Department on Sunday, claiming he shot his mother and threatening to shoot any police officers if they came to his house, police said.
The caller claimed to be a 17-year-old boy at an address on Garfield Avenue, according to an audio recording of the phone call released Monday. The home was empty when officers went there to investigate Sunday night, police said.
The caller spent more than seven minutes talking to a dispatcher when he called the police department’s main line just before 8:30 p.m., the audio recording shows.
An edited version of the recording has been included in the video at the top of this post.
The caller immediately told the dispatcher that he shot his mother.
“I didn’t take my medication, and my mom was trying to ground me, so I shot her,” he told the dispatcher.
He claimed that he thought his mother was dead, and asked the dispatcher to send an ambulance. He threatened to shoot any police officers if they came to the house, the recording shows.
“If any cops come here, I’m going to kill them,” the caller told the dispatcher.
The caller later threatened suicide, saying he planned to to blow up the house with a propane tank, the recording shows.
“If I blow up the house, it’ll be over,” he told the dispatcher.
The dispatcher spent several minutes trying to talk the caller down before the call ended.
No arrests have been made in the case, police said Monday afternoon.
Detectives are still trying to trace the call, police said. The man did not provide a phone number, and claimed he was “calling from [his] computer,” the audio recording shows.
Detectives have not determined if the phone call was an example of a trend called swatting, which involves reporting life-threatening emergencies in the hopes of bringing in a SWAT team or a large contingent of emergency personnel.
Last week, Wickliffe police reported a swatting hoax was motivated by an online gaming feud. The tactic is often used between online video game players.
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