Prattville police arrest Montgomery officer on multiple ‘swatting’ charges
The Prattville Police Department arrested and charged a law enforcement officer on multiple counts of filing false reports of an incident.
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Prattville police arrest Montgomery officer on multiple ‘swatting’ charges
He was arrested by Prattville police, who say the officer reported a number of crimes that never actually happened.By WSFA 12 News Staff
Published: Feb. 15, 2024 at 1:25 PM EST|Updated: Feb. 15, 2024 at 4:08 PM EST
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - The Prattville Police Department arrested and charged a law enforcement officer on multiple counts of filing false reports of an incident.
Prattville Police Chief Mark Thompson said the suspect, Christopher Eugene Sanspree Jr., 23, of Montgomery is accused of making at least six calls to Prattville police over a three month period.
Sanspree, who is employed by the Montgomery Police Department, was on-duty at the time of the incidents, Thompson said. He was arrested in Montgomery and transported to Autauga County Feb. 7 but was later released on bond.
WSFA 12 News reached out to the Montgomery Police Department to inquire about any possible disciplinary proceedings and Sanspree’s current employment status. Capt. Raymond Carson, with MPD’s Office of Professional Standards, confirmed Sanspree has been with the department 28 months, was on patrol duty at the time of his arrest, an is currently on “administrative assignment.”
Thompson said the false calls, referred to as “swatting,” started Oct. 30 and continued through late December. He said while his department can prove Sanspree’s connection to false calls in his jurisdiction, the investigation may extend far beyond Alabama. Thompson said his department is working with law enforcement agencies as far away as Georgia, Wyoming, and Massachusetts to determine if swatting calls in those places are connected.
The chief said the first call to Prattville police described “a subject laying in the front yard...apparently shot.” Later, he said the department “started receiving different calls about, reported seeing people breaking in cars, vehicles, running around with a machete.”
Still other calls reported “a man walking around with a blood trail” and “seeing a male running around with a machete, people laying in the street bleeding.”
After his arrest, Thompson said it remained unclear why Sanspree allegedly made the swatting calls, though the chief noted Sanspree said in one statement “he thought it was funny.”
Asked for his reaction to an on-duty officer allegedly committing these crimes and thinking it was funny, Thompson was blunt. “Point blank, honest with you, it pissed me off,” he stated.
“We have enough to deal with, with the image of police officers, already, and then we have somebody do something like this, and he was on duty when he was doing this,” Thompson explained. “And so, yeah, it highly irritates me and other law enforcement chiefs that are trying to keep the image of law enforcement being a honorable career, and then we have people like this doing stunts like this.”
Thompson said his department takes the incidents very serious, noting that “there have been some instances where these false calls were ambushes. We never know what we’re going into when we get these types calls, and him being a police officer, would have full knowledge of that.”
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