911 Callers Threaten to Shoot Dispatchers, Blow Up Building

Callers that don’t “like the police” rang Hillsborough County’s 911 Communication Center four times over the weekend threatening to shoot dispatchers, blow up the building and shoot the agency’s helicopter out of the sky.

Now, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office is looking for help tracking down the people responsible for those calls. The series of threats came in between 7:08 and 9:23 p.m. Saturday, an email to media from the sheriff’s office stated. A synopsis of the calls follows:

• Call No. 1 – 7:08 p.m.: The caller hung up and the dispatcher made three callbacks to the cell phone number identified. “In each of the required callbacks, the individuals that answered became verbally abusive and refused to provide information required to cancel a law enforcement response,” the email stated. “Deputies responded to an area in the east side of Hillsborough County were unable to locate the cell phone callers.”
• Call No. 2 – 7:40 p.m.: Incoming callers threatened to “blow up the dispatcher, and come down to the dispatch office and shoot the dispatcher with a shotgun.” A second person got on the line to say “he’s coming to blow the station up.”
• Call No. 3 – 8:27 p.m.: Callers again threatened to “blow up the dispatch office.”
• Call No. 4 – 9:23 p.m.: This time the callers used obscenities and threatened to “blow up officers who come out and shoot the helicopter out of the air.” They explained their reasons by saying “they don’t like the police.”

Anyone who might know who is responsible for these calls is asked to call the sheriff’s office at 813-247-8200. Tips may also be submitted via Crime Stoppers at 1-800-873-TIPS (8477), online at www.crimestopperstb.com or by texting “CSTB plus your tip” to C-R-I-M-E-S (274637).

The threats come at a time when tensions are running high in the wake of grand jury decisions not to indict police officers in New York and Missouri in use-of-force cases. Two New York City officers and a Tarpon Springs Police Officer were killed in the past few days.

See Also:

• Scammers Trying To Cash In On Officer’s Death
• NYPD Officers ‘Assassinated’ In Apparent Revenge Shooting Over Police Violence

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