GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) – A Brown County man has been charged with multiple felonies after allegedly making a series of “swatting” phone calls, prompting police responses across Green Bay.
Thirty-five-year-old Andrew Hill faces five felony charges of False Reporting of an Emergency related to false weapon threats made between November 13 and December 10. Hill is accused of calling in fake reports involving a person with a gun in public places or a group of individuals threatening others.
Police say Hill used the same phone number but provided different names for each call, only using his real name once. All the calls were eventually determined to be unfounded, leading investigators to begin looking into the source of the false reports.
The first two swatting calls were made in November. Officers were unable to find any credible information or locate Hill during these investigations. On December 7, Hill made two more calls, both prompting significant police action. One reported a gunman in the parking lot of the Brown County Library, but officers found no suspects at the scene. The caller indicated that the suspect had gone into an apartment on North Monroe Avenue.
Approximately 30 minutes later, police received a second call from a person claiming to be Andrew Hill, reporting a man with a gun in an apartment on the eighth floor of the same building. When officers made contact with Hill, they noted he appeared either mentally unstable or possibly under the influence of drugs. Hill claimed that a man inside the apartment had a gun, but the resident was cooperative and unaware of any weapons. After officers left the apartment to check the hallway, Hill had disappeared, and the apartment resident told them that Hill was a known informant who was “always tweaking.”
Further investigation revealed that the phone number used for the false reports belonged to Hill, and he had been on probation for a 2018 Substantial Battery charge.
Hill appeared in Brown County Court on Thursday, though details about his bond or future court dates have not been disclosed.