An Alabama police officer has been charged with a misdemeanor for making multiple “swatting” phones calls — while on duty — because “he thought it was funny.”
Christopher Eugene Sanspree Jr., 23, has been placed on administrative leave from his job with the Montgomery Police Department after his arrest by Prattville Police, who said he made at least six false calls to the department over a three month period, WSFA reported.
Swatting is making bogus reports of serious crimes to draw a heavy police presence to a particular location.
The calls began on October 30 and went through late December, Prattville Police Chief Mark Thompson said. In the first call, Sanspree described “a subject laying in the front yard … apparently shot.” Other calls “reported seeing people breaking in cars, vehicles, running around with a machete.”
The calls also reported “a man walking around with a blood trail” and “seeing a male running around with a machete, people laying in the street bleeding.”
Thompson said his department is also working with agencies in Georgia, Wyoming, and Massachusetts to see if swatting calls in those jurisdictions are connected.
The chief said Sanspree said in a statement to police that “he thought it was funny.”
“Point blank honest with you, it pissed me off,” Thompson said when asked for his reaction.
After his arrest, Thompson said it remained unclear why Sanspree allegedly made the swatting calls, though the chief noted Sanspree said in one statement “he thought it was funny.”
“We have enough to deal with, with the image of police officers, already, and then we have somebody do something like this, and he was on duty when he was doing this,” Thompson said. “And so, yeah, it highly irritates me and other law enforcement chiefs that are trying to keep the image of law enforcement being a honorable career, and then we have people like this doing stunts like this.”
“There have been some instances where these false calls were ambushes,” he said. “We never know what we’re going into when we get these types calls, and him being a police officer, would have full knowledge of that.”
Sanspree was arrested in Montgomery and taken to jail in Autauga County on February 7, where he was booked and released on a $6,000 bond, AL.com said.
Montgomery Police Capt. Raymond Carson said Sanspree has been an officer in Montomery for 28 months and at the time of his arrest was a patrol officer.
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[Featured image: Christopher Eugene Sanspree Jr./Autauga County Sheriff’s Office]
