KC man charged with making false 911 call about shooting at Liberty Hospital
.jpg "James Suffern, 60, allegedly called 911 to report a false shooting after Liberty Police Officers pulled him over for a traffic stop.")
A Kansas City man is facing a criminal charge in Clay County after officials allege he made a false call to 911, during which he reportedly claimed there had been a shooting at a Liberty hospital.
An officer with the Liberty Police Department conducted a traffic stop at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday on a vehicle driven by 60-year-old James Suffern, according to a Facebook post from the police department. Officers learned during the stop that Suffern had a suspended driver’s license and several warrants for his arrest.
During the stop, at 1:41 p.m., the police department’s communications center received a call regarding a possible shooting at Liberty Hospital, the post said. While on the way to the hospital, officers contacted hospital security and were told the staff was “unaware of any shooting.”
Hospital personnel placed the facility on lockdown “out of an abundance of caution to protect patients, visitors and staff,” the police department said.
Personnel at the communications center eventually discovered the phone number used to make the report was associated with Suffern, according to the post. Suffern was taken into custody on his outstanding warrants, and was later charged with making a terroristic threat for the alleged call to dispatchers.
“Making a false report is not a way to get out of going to jail; it diverts emergency responders away from legitimate calls for service and places unnecessary fear and disruption on our community,” the police department said.
Suffern is being held in the Clay County Detention Center on a $50,000 bond, according to the post.
