Toms River, NJ – After reports of the second shooting in Toms River began this week, rumors quickly spread on social media Friday afternoon.
The Toms River Police Department later said those rumors were intentionally spread to create police swatting incident.
“This afternoon there was some chatter on various local pages of a shooting in Toms River. After a heavy police response, it was quickly determined to be a “swatting” incident and no one was injured or in any type of danger,” said Toms River Police Department Spokeswoman Jillian Messina.
According to the Toms River Police Department’s release on the matter, swatting is falsely reporting an emergency to public safety by a person for the intent of getting a (“SWAT. team”) response to a location where no emergency exists. Many times during an initial call and dispatch, several pieces of information are coming in that have to be verified in a police investigation.
“While we appreciate the public wanting to know what is happening in real-time, information that is posted or shared by others may turn out to be inaccurate,” Messina stated. “We ask the public to please be patient while our officers and detectives do their jobs so that we can provide you with a true account of an incident.Thank you for your continued support.”