A heavily armed SWAT team from the Broward County Sheriff’s Office this morning descended on the home of Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg in response to a prank call reporting a hostage situation.
A news helicopter from Local10 was over the scene in the 7800 block of Northwest 122nd Way in Coral Springs as multiple officers and sheriff’s deputies surrounded the home.
The unidentified caller who sparked the ‘swatting’ claimed that a stabbing had occurred and that someone was barricaded inside Hogg’s home.
Swatted: Police vehicles and SWAT officers are pictured on Tuesday morning outside the Florida home of Parkland survivor David Hogg
Prank: Someone called police falsely claiming that a stabbing had occurred at the Hogg residence, followed by a hostage situation
Heavily armed SWAt units responded to the address, but soon determined the report was not credible
Officers who responded to the scene determined that there was no hostage situation and the scene was cleared at around 10am.
NBC Miami reported that a local elementary school was placed on lockdown as a precaution for over an hour while police investigated the bogus hostage report.
Hogg, 18, on Sunday graduated from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which in February became the site of a mass shooting that claimed 17 lives.
He and several other survivors, among them Emma Gonzalez, Cameron Kasky and Jaclyn Corin have emerged as outspoken advocates of stricter gun control laws and fierce opponents of the National Rifle Association, staging rallies and using social media to weigh in on the polarizing issue.
Hogg was not home at the time of the ‘swatting’ incident: he and his mother were in Washington DC to accept the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Award for his activism.
David and his mother, Rebecca Boldrick (left and second left) were in Washington DC accepting an award for his activism (pictured with his sister and dad)
A day earlier, Hogg (center) took part in a rally, announcing a national bus tour to register young voters
The 18-year-old Parkland shooting survivor has emerged as an outspoken advocate of stricter gun control laws. Pictured left at the March For Our Lives in March and right with his schoolmate Emma Gonzales at the 2018 Time Gala in New York in April
On Monday, Hogg took part in a March For Our Lives rally, where he and other school shooting survivors announced that they will spend their summer crisscrossing the country to register young voters and educate them about gun laws.
Hogg helped organize a massive voter registration drive last week at 1,000 schools in 46 states. He and other students are advocating for tighter regulations on guns, including universal background checks and training for people who own AR-15s and similar semi-automatic rifles.
Also last week, Hogg helped stage a ‘die-in’ at a Publix supermarket in Coral Springs over its support of a pro-NRA gubernatorial candidate.
Over the past five months, Hogg and other Parkland survivors have been subjected to a steady stream of abuse on social media, including death threats.
In March, the teen’s family contacted the FBI after his mother, Rebecca Boldrick, saw a comment on her Facebook page from an NRA suppers , which read: ‘You can change your settings, but you can never change your faces, your whole family is exposed because of your piece of s*** kid, btw his whole plan has backfired on him, i’m sure his birthday celebration will be an interesting event… f*** you and him God Bless the NRA and the right to bear arms, wrong crowd to f*** with idiotsticks.’
Last week, Hogg helped stage a ‘die-in’ at a Publix supermarket in Coral Springs over its support of a pro-NRA gubernatorial candidate
Another commenter said Boldrick should have had an abortion and urged her to ‘drive the whole family over a cliff.’
Around the same time, firebrand Fox News host Laura Ingraham was forced to take a week off air after mocking Hogg for being rejected by four colleges.
After 11 advertisers pulled out of her show, Ingraham tweeted an apology for her remarks.
As recently as last week, Coconut Creek police officer Brian Valenti was suspended without pay for writing on Facebook that David Hogg should be run over with a car during the Publix ‘die-in.’
As of late Tuesday morning, Hogg, who is a prolific tweeter users with more than 819,000 followers, has not publicly commented on the ‘swatting’ incident at hhis family’s home.