Hostage Standoff on Duval Street: “In typical Key West fashion: ‘Nothing’ happens in the most spectacular way.” ~ Mike Mongo
UPDATE Thursday July 2, 3:35 pm
by Naja and Arnaud Girard…….
The 911 call went something like this: ‘I stabbed my wife. I stabbed her in the chest and the abdomen, both. I have a shotgun. I’m in my room at Duval House and I’m holding my 13-year old niece hostage.’
KWPD went running, set up a perimeter, locked down the 800 block of Duval Street and sharp shooters took position. Reinforcements were called in. The mobile command post was deployed and police negotiators with bullhorns blaring, yelled, “The area is surrounded, come out slowly with your hands in the air! No one needs to get hurt!”
And… apparently, it was all a hoax. By around 2:00 am, after a 7-hour standoff, officers had entered the hotel, clearing one room after another, and had found no man with a shotgun, no wounded woman, no blood, no little hostage girl.
This of course is a good thing. But, it also raises serious questions about what led to this situation – which is now believed to have been a prank.
911 dispatchers initially received the call describing the crime scene at the Duval House at around 7:00 p.m on Wednesday. However, the source information for the caller was blocked.
When police began negotiating, using a bullhorn from across the street, the caller responded. But, police likely suspected something was amiss after noticing that the man would only respond when the bullhorn was used in certain areas – as though he was only able to hear the negotiator when the horn was used in those locations. Police now believe the man, though clearly not inside the hotel, may have been able to observe the scene from a remote site.
“Swatting”
It is too early to tell, but the incident may be related to a phone-hacking phenomenon called “swatting”: A law enforcement nightmare the FBI first warned about in 2008. Since then, cases have popped up all across the country.
Understandably, the prank 911 calls elicit an immediate and spectacular law enforcement response. For example, one caller in Colorado said he shot his co-workers at a video game company and had taken hostages. Another, in Bradenton, Florida, said her drunk father was wielding a machine gun and was threatening their family. Yet another caller, on New York’s Long Island, claimed to have killed his mother and threatened to shoot first responders. In each case, SWAT teams dispatched to the scene found no violent criminals or wounded victims.
“Swatting” is particularly popular among internet “gamers.” Authorities say the hoax that initially targeted celebrities [among the rapidly growing list of star victims are Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Ashton Kutcher, Russell Brand, Ryan Seacrest, Tom Cruise, Selena Gomez, Rihanna, and Chris Brown] has now become a way for players of combat-themed video games to retaliate against opponent players. The perpetrators can sit in front of their computers watching their pranks [sometimes along with thousands of spectators] unfold play by play on a screen that shows a live video image of other players.
The pranksters, who are often many miles away, look up their opponents’ addresses in phone directories. They also use online programs set up to trick 911 dispatchers into believing an emergency call is coming from the victim’s phone or address [called “spoofing”]. All the while, concealing their own identities and locations.
Non-gamer hoaxes are not uncommon either: Last Sunday in Parma, Ohio, a man called police to say he had shot his father and was holding his mother and sister hostage. Inside the home people were completely unaware of the police surrounding the house and preparing for a takedown.
Lt. Kevin Riley of the Parma Police Department told CBS News, “Fortunately no one was harmed during Sunday’s incident, but things could have turned out much worse. It’s possible that the homeowner could have seen movement outside his home and come out to investigate with his own gun, for example.”
“You have the makings for a very terrible tragedy,” he said. It is traumatic for the homeowners and dangerous for everyone involved, including police officers and nearby bystanders.
It also ties up significant law enforcement resources both during and after the incident.
Key West
Fortunately in Key West, the police department deployed immediately and in full force, but acted with extreme caution and avoided the possible catastrophe that a less careful response might have caused.
On the streets, blocked with spider webs of yellow police tape, we spoke to tourists who were afraid they would miss their flight back home if they couldn’t return to their hotel room on time. Businesses had to close their doors. The cost to multiple law enforcement agencies in extra manpower is unknown at this time, but is expected to be significant.
The 800 Block went dead. Only the giant ladies at the 801 Bar remained standing, chatting on their corner of the sidewalk, seemingly unphased, as if in another dimension on a little island of glimmering lights.
“People called me all night,” said Mike Mongo, who is running for the District V City Commissioner position in Key West. “They all had stories… the guy jumping from the window and running down the street, the police after him and crowd yelling, ‘He killed that woman!’ All fabrications! It was all a prank!”
“In typical Key West fashion,” added Mongo, “nothing happens – in the most spectacular way!”
This updated story was originally published on July 2, 2015 at 3:26 pm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZLSsXn8FzE
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Naja & Arnaud,
Outstanding coverage throughout the week. KWPD has to get to the bottom of this. Too much potential for innocent citizens and officers to be needlessly injured or killed.
Blessings & Respect
Your headline is superb! I could not have put it better.
It is what I call “The Ugly Sister Syndrome”. We want to be as “good” and “important” as everyone else. So, we take any issue/situation and project it to the max just to prove that we are part of the mainstream, even if it doesn’t call for that. This is not the first time that KWPD or the Sheriff’s Department have grossly overreacted to something. I agree thoroughly with John D. that there was “too much potential for innocent citizens and officers to be needlessly injured or killed.”
“grossly overreacted”
Well, what if they had not “grossly overreacted, and it was for real, the the wife was stabbed to death, and the niece was shot?
My problem, potentially, with how the cops responded was, did they not use GPS to track the location of the cell phone, from which the various calls were made?
Here’s my comment to today’s Keynoter article on the incident:
“I’ve been told by someone who knows a bit about such matters, if the perp used a cell phone, then the police could have used GPS to track the cell phone’s location. Was this done? Anyone can buy a cheap cell phone and time card for cash, and make a bogus 911 call, then destroy the cell phone, or probably just remove the battery, I was told, and GPS will not find the cell phone. What I’m wondering is, was this more than a prank? Was it retaliatory for something the caller did not disclose? Perhaps the caller was upset with perceived KWPD conduct unbecoming, which was resolved in favor of KWPD. Perhaps the caller was upset with city hall and the city commission’s handling of allegations of KWPD wrongdoing. Perhaps the caller was upset with the city’s Citizen Police Review Board’s handling of allegations of KWPD misconduct. Perhaps the caller was upset about the rainbow striping on the corner of the 800 block of Truman, and with the recent Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage. Perhaps this now will happen again, now that the door has been opened. Imagine anyone mad at KWPD making a fake 911 cell phone call, claiming something awful going down somewhere, using a throw away cell phone. What will the cops do? Ignore a “suspicious” 911 cell phone call? Respond to it? How long will the cops keep responding to suspicious 911 cell phone calls? And when will a suspicious 911 call be for real, and the cops did not respond, like the story of the little shepherd boy who kept crying wolf, and when the wolf really did come the townspeople did not believe the shepherd boy’s cries that the wolf really had come. Some might view such an outcome in Key West as karma for how KWPD is perceived by some, or by many, to misbehave and nothing ever comes from it, and the city manager and city commission back KWPD all the way.”
From what we been told this is one time I must support the actions of the KWPD. Yes costly but they handled it properly.