Wild Swatting Calls Allegedly Came From a Cop

Police departments across the country have been speaking out about swatting as a form of criminal harassment that endangers innocent people as well as police officers. But apparently not all cops think it's so serious. As WAGA and WSFA report, Alabama police officer Christopher Eugene Sanspree Jr., 23, allegedly placed swatting calls to a police department while on duty with another department because "he thought it was funny," says Prattville Police Chief Mark Thompson. The two-year veteran of the Montgomery Police Department placed six calls to Prattville Police over three months beginning in late October, claiming to have seen a gunshot victim lying in a yard, "people lying in the street bleeding," and people "running around with a machete," Thompson tells WSFA.

"These falsely reported incidents were serious in nature and required a substantial amount of resources to respond to each call as well as a considerable amount of investigative resources to be expended," Prattville Police said in a Facebook post. Thompson says Sanspree admitted to placing the calls as a joke, one he doesn't find funny. "We have enough to deal with, with the image of police officers, already." Arrested Feb. 7 on six misdemeanor counts of false reporting an incident, Sanspee has since been released from custody and is on "administrative assignment" with Montgomery Police, per WSFA. Prattville Police continue to investigate the case, including the possibility that Sanspree is connected to swatting calls in other states. (More swatting stories.)