Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley had her South Carolina home targeted in a “swatting” attempt last month, when a man called in a fake emergency to police, according to a new report.
On Dec. 30, police in the town of Kiawah Island received a 911 call from someone who “claimed to have shot his girlfriend and threatened to harm himself while at the residence of Nikki Haley,” according to an email between town officials that was first reported Saturday by Reuters.
Haley, who previously served as South Carolina’s governor, and her family were not home at the time of the call, the outlet reported. The call was later determined to be a hoax.
Swatting — the act of contacting police with a false report of an emergency in hopes of drawing a SWAT team or other serious response — can have deadly consequences when officers arrive at the location of the fake threat.
Haley, who has continued to trade barbs with former President Donald Trump as they compete for the Republican presidential nomination, is among a number of officials who have been targeted amid a wave of hoax calls.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) was targeted by a swatting attempt on Christmas, just days before Haley’s home was reportedly targeted. In Greene’s case, a man in New York called a Georgia suicide hotline and claimed that he had shot his girlfriend at Greene’s home, police said.
On Dec. 29, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows was similarly targeted by a swatting call. The call came shortly after she removed Trump from the state’s presidential primary ballot under the U.S. Constitution’s insurrection clause.
And earlier this month, a judge overseeing Trump’s election interference case in Washington was targeted by a hoax call.
