Tennessee Representative Is Victim of Weekend 'Swatting'

A U.S. congressman from Tennessee was the victim of a “swatting” over the weekend, a tactic that is more frequently being used to attack political foes in the United States.

Representative Tim Burchett (R-TN-02) was the victim of the nefarious incident.

Swatting typically involves a false tip sent to authorities claiming that the target of the swatting attempt is carrying out an act of violence at their residence. When authorities – sometimes SWAT teams, from which the term swatting derives its name – arrive on the scene, they will typically raid the property with guns drawn.

“An email was sent to county officials that resulted in deputies being sent to my house while Kelly, Isabel, and I were out to dinner,” Burchett told The Tennessee Star on Tuesday. “This whole thing makes me even more grateful for [Knox County] Sheriff [Tom] Spangler and his deputies who arrived at my house within minutes of being dispatched, they do a great job of keeping our community safe.”

That email reportedly said that a man in the home had caught his wife cheating on him and killed his wife’s lover.

Burchett said swatting attempts are becoming more frequent and warned that the incident could have turned out differently if his family had been home at the time.

“It does appear to be a coordinated effort to target public officials across the country, and I’m praying no one ends up getting hurt as a result of one of these calls,” he said. “I take precautions to protect my family and I know if someone other than law enforcement had entered my property unannounced, it could have had a very different ending.”

No suspect has been named.

Last May, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reportedly created a database to track swatting activities nationwide.

“Chief Scott Schubert with the bureau’s Criminal Justice Information Services headquarters in Clarksburg, West Virginia, told NBC News that the agency formed a national online database in May to facilitate information sharing between hundreds of police departments and law enforcement agencies across the country pertaining to swatting incidents,” NBC reported at the time.

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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on X / Twitter.
Photo “Tim Burchett” by Congressman Tim Burchett.