Police descend upon Parkland activist David Hogg's home after hoax call

A prank call into the Broward County Sheriff's Office led heavily armed police to surround the Florida home of Parkland shooting survivor and activist David Hogg on Tuesday. The caller claimed hostages were being held at the Hogg residence, local ABC affiliate WPLG reported, prompting the sheriff's office to immediately dispatch law enforcement officers and a helicopter to the scene.

But when police arrived at Hogg's home, they discovered the call was a hoax. Hogg, who graduated Sunday from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 students and teachers were killed in February, was not home at the time. He is currently in Washington, D.C., with his mother, to receive the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award.

The practice of prank calling police about hostage situations is known as "swatting." In 2017, a swatting incident led to the death of an innocent 28-year-old father of two in Kansas after a California man called 911, claiming there had been a shooting at the victim's home. The suspect was later arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter.

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Hogg told WPLG that the prank is "really a distraction from what we're trying to fix here, which is the massive gun violence epidemic in this country." The 17-year-old is gearing up to embark on a 60-day summer tour across the United States with several of his Parkland peers; on June 15, they will start traveling with the March for Our Lives movement to register young people to vote and promote gun reform.