Someone tried to draw police and a hostage negotiator to the Delano home of U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer over the weekend by claiming a murder had taken place inside, the Wright County Sheriff’s Office says.
The five-term Republican posted about it on X Saturday. “Tonight my family and I were the target of a ‘swatting’ incident involving a 911 prank call that wrongly diverted a police presence to my home,” Emmer wrote. He noted that other elected officials around the country have been similarly targeted recently.
A person who claimed to live at the house emailed the Wright County Attorney’s Office to claim he’d killed a man with whom his wife had been cheating. He requested a hostage negotiator and said he had her tied up inside, according to a copy of the police report.
A Wright County deputy identified the residence as Emmer’s home. Emmer was not in the state at the time.
“Thankfully, no one was home or injured,” Emmer wrote on X. “I condemn this illegal abuse of police resources.”
A Sheriff’s Office spokesperson said U.S. Capitol Police are investigating the incident.
The call came about a month after other high-profile Republican lawmakers reported having police summoned to their homes amid fake reports of violence. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, reported a similar incident on Christmas.
Several Minnesota schools and Jewish facilities were also the subjects of fake bombing and shooting threats in early December.
