A Brooksville man is in custody on charges he made a hoax emergency report that sent a SWAT team, negotiators and a drone unit to a Bradenton marina in May, police said.
Ronald Sellars, 33, was arrested July 10 by the Bradenton Police Department with assistance from the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office. He is charged with filing a false report concerning the use of firearms in a violent manner, a second-degree felony, and unlawful use of a two-way communications device, a third-degree felony, police said.
Swatting is the act of making a false emergency report about a serious incident with the intent of drawing a large law enforcement response. The hoaxes tie up emergency resources and put officers and bystanders at risk.
Bradenton police were notified the morning of May 29 of alarming messages sent through the chat function of the national 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, according to the department. The writer said he was on a boat at Twin Dolphin Marina, claimed to have killed a woman and said he intended to take his own life. The messages also included the boat owner’s phone number, police said.
Given the nature of the messages, patrol officers, a drone unit, the SWAT team and hostage negotiators responded to the marina, according to police.
Officers eventually reached the boat owner and a woman, both unharmed and unaware of the messages, police said. The two told investigators that Sellars, the woman’s husband, had tried repeatedly to contact them May 28 and May 29.
Sellars denied contacting the crisis line, but detectives obtained digital evidence linking his devices to the chat messages, police said.
Sellars was being held at the Hernando County jail.