POLK COUNTY, Fla. – The Polk County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday announced the arrests of two out-of-state teenagers accused of swatting a Poinciana kid in back-to-back days after they became upset with the way he played Fortnite.
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According to the sheriff’s office, the teens, a 15-year-old from Connecticut and a 14-year-old from New York, are facing charges of making false reports concerning the use of a firearm and unlawfully using a two-way communication device.
On June 4, Polk County deputies said they were sent to a home in Poinciana after receiving reports of gunshots being fired, with the caller identifying themselves as a 12-year-old child who lived there.
“Deputies arrived and quickly determined that there had been no gunshots, and the child who lived at the house did not make the call,” PCSO said.
The next day, deputies were sent to the same home after receiving a call saying that the caller had murdered their family with a shotgun, and again, quickly determined that the report was false.
An investigation launched by detectives, who were able to track the calls made to PCSO, revealed that the child who lived at the residence had been playing Fortnite, a multiplayer, royal rumble-style video game, with people he had met through Discord, a popular group chat app used by many gamers.
“With coordination between the PCSO, the Department of Juvenile Justice, Florida’s 10th Judicial Circuit, East Hartford Police, and Syracuse Police, the two suspects were arrested, and their transfer to Polk County was put into motion,” the sheriff’s office said.
The 15-year-old was booked into a Polk County jail on July 7, while the 14-year-old was booked on July 10.
On July 1, in Florida, a law went into effect increasing penalties for those who are found guilty of swatting after Gov. Ron DeSantis made the act a felony if it led to damage, injury, or death in 2021.
However, he said the 2025 legislative update was required because the former version of the law was not “sufficient.”
