ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (WKBW) — A swatting incident took place in Orchard Park this weekend.
Part of the incident was caught on video and was then posted to social media.
In the video, the officer can be heard saying he thinks the call was sparked by someone trying to get a major police response to the home two men were doing repair work on.
If this issue sounds familiar, that is because it is.
At the end of March and in early April, several police departments around the state including Buffalo and Lockport police responded to fake bomb threat calls at schools.
In response to the spike in "swatting", State Assemblyman Scott Gray introduced bill A2977 which would upgrade swatting to a "class e" felony, from a misdemeanor crime.
7 News' Pheben Kassahun took a closer look at the reason these types of calls can be so dangerous to the community, and hearing directly from the man who posted the video to TikTok.
In the video that has garnered more than 655,000 views, you can hear the exchange between Tyrell Johnson and an Orchard Park officer.
Officer: "We got a call about four Black males tying up an old man, kidnapping him."
Tyrell Johnson: "I don't know nothing about that."
It is an incident so jarring, it shook Buffalo contractor Tyrell Johnson to his core.
Sunday, July 9, he became a victim of swatting while he and his cousin were on the job, in Orchard Park.
"As I am at the top of my ladder, I see the police actually coming through the trees and that's what made me actually pull my phone out and record because I don't know why he's coming through the trees for and I know he's looking right at me," Tyrell Johnson said.
The Rochester native was simply working on a customer's gutters.
That is when he got down and waited for the officer to approach him.
Johnson told Kassahun, "He told me that he got a call about four Black men, armed Black men, were on the property kidnapping an old guy. I was a little confused at first. I kind of just stood there like, 'What?'"
Johnson: "You can knock at the door bro.
Officer: "No one lives here though?"
Johnson: "I mean, you can knock on the door."
Officer: "Did you guys have any issues with anybody."
Johnson: "You said, they said what?"
Officer: "They said, they saw one old male get kidnapped by four Black males with guns."
Swatting has unfortunately become all too common.
RELATED STORY: Police in Western New York investigating alleged 'swatting' at local schools
Kassahun asked retired Buffalo Police Department Captain Jeff Rinaldo about the crime.
"People that make those phone calls, the intention is to get a large police response, which ultimately could lead to a tragedy because the nature of the call is some type of violent crime in progress so it heightens the senses of the officers and they tend to respond to those situations very quickly, and in great numbers," retired Buffalo PD Captain Jeff Rinaldo said.
It is something so detrimental for not only the people being swatted on, but the department itself.
"Most agencies here in Western New York don't have a full time SWAT Team so you won't actually see a SWAT response until they've actually identified the need for those resources. Again, it is a crime. If somebody, God forbid gets hurt, whether if it's the police officer responding to it or a member of the public, it is rapidly escalated to a felony crime. The consequences are quite severe for that," Rinaldo said.
Johnson explained, "That's when I went to try to get my partner to know what's going on, which kind of upset me because he had those headphones going on. It wasn't really to much of a bad situation. It could have been bad. That's all I was getting at. It could have been horrible actually."
Johnson said he is frustrated with the situation but is thankful he and his cousin were able to go home that day. It is a situation he calls racist as well.
"I'm not out here treating people bad. Treat me like a human being. I am trying to make a living just like everybody else. That's all," Johnson said.
7 News reached out to the Orchard Park Police Chief Patrick Fitzgerald for an comment and received this statement:
"This is an active investigation and we will not be commenting further on it for obvious reasons."
