School Swatting Incident In Toms River Traced To Canadian Teen: Police

TOMS RIVER, NJ — A teenager in Canada has been charged in a pair of swatting incidents, including one that delayed the start of school at Toms River Intermediate East earlier in November, police said Tuesday.

The 14-year-old boy from Edmonton, Canada, who was not named because he is a juvenile, was identified about 45 minutes after the investigation at Intermediate East on Nov. 21, said Jillian Messina, media relations specialist for the Toms River Police Department.

Swatting is when someone makes a prank call to emergency services in an attempt to draw a large law enforcement response to a particular address, she said.

At Intermediate East, police responded after the school received a phone call regarding a potential threat, not long before classes were scheduled to start on Nov. 21. Students and staff were kept out of the building while the area was thoroughly checked and the threat deemed unfounded, and by about 8:45 a.m. that day classes were in session, authorities said at the time.

Messina said Toms River Detective Graham Borg and Cpl. Jesse Robertazzi of the department's Cyber Crimes Unit were able to identify the boy as the suspect in the swatting incident. With assistance from Officer Scott Fallano, they also connected the boy to a swatting call to a Toms River home on Nov. 20 that was received by Toms River police dispatchers, Messina said.

Law enforcement in Edmonton arrested the boy, a 9th grader, and charged him in both Toms River swatting incidents, she said.

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