UGA football coach victimized by swatting incident

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File photo

By Joe Johnson

Jalen Harris was rudely awakened early Sunday morning by a team of heavily armed police officers equipped with tactical gear.

The assistant University of Georgia football coach assured members of the police Strategic Response Team that he was not in any danger or trouble, but the police officers conducted a sweep of the home to make sure.

It turned out that Harris had been the victim of swatting, a malicious prank in which someone falsely reports an emergency that requires a response by a police department’s SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) unit.

In this incident, someone called Harris’s brother threatening to kill the UGA coach if money wasn’t sent via Cash App.

The brother had received the call from Harris’s actual phone number, and he told police that “while on the phone he heard someone in the background crying and told dispatch that the call sounded convincing…”

The swatting incident continues to be investigated by the police department.