Police are looking for a man who made three bogus 911 calls from payphones Sunday morning, including ones reporting shots fired and an “officer down” on the Southwest Side.
He made his first call at 7:23 a.m. while at a gas station near the 7800 block of South Western Avenue, according to police News Affairs Officer Robert Perez. The caller claimed he was having a problem or an argument with the gas station attendants there, but when officers got to the scene workers there said that was not true.
A few minutes later he moved to another pay phone near the 7800 block of South Western Avenue and told dispatchers there were shots fired, and then hung up. He called back moments later to say an “officer was down,’’ and hung up again, Perez said.
Officers investigated but found the reports were not bona fide.
Fake Calls
It's times like these we can understand old man Daley's logic about shooting to kill arsonists:
The potential for major injuries or even deaths responding to calls like these, not only for the police officers, but for innocent bystanders, increases at an exponential rate. And for a fake call like this in a political atmosphere like today, officers would be crucified. Unfortunately, that's the reality today. Be careful out there.