By Olivia Hitchcock and Jorge Milian
The Palm Beach Post
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. — A man who said he was armed called county dispatchers this past month from inside a Walmart on Old Boynton Road, saying he had two guns and was going to start killing people if he couldn’t speak to his wife.
“She’s a Trump supporter and I just don’t like her,” the man told the dispatcher.
Boynton Beach police evacuated the store, but an hours-long search turned up nothing, city police said.
That’s because the supposedly armed man was actually a 16-year-old who is now facing charges of misuse of 911, city police said.
Police released that two-minute 911 call and four others Monday morning. The teen, whose name was not released by police, is accused of calling 911 without an emergency eight times, Boynton Beach Police Spokeswoman Stephanie Slater said.
The teen was behind the only other call about the supposed gunman Nov. 26 at Walmart, police said. In that seven and a half-minute call, the teen’s story is inconsistent about everything from the gunman’s skin color to the number of guns he was holding and the entrance he used.
Walmart shoppers were evacuated following an announcement on the store’s loudspeaker warning, “This is not a drill.”
The SWAT team and a K9 unit searched the store as panicked customers and employees waited outside in the parking lot. After clearing the building, police were not initially certain if the calls were a hoax or if the gunman had left along with those evacuating the building.
Police say he made more fake calls in the following weeks.
The day after police say he caused the evacuation at Walmart, the teen called 911 to say he knew the identity of a person who burglarized a Mercedes Benz outside the Boynton Beach Mall. The call ended after the teen gave a non-existent address for the alleged suspect.
On Dec. 1, he phoned the emergency number about 3 p.m. to report a 12-year-old having a seizure in the main office at Congress Middle School. At one point, the teen informs the dispatcher that the victim is not breathing.
“Please don’t let this boy die,” the teen is heard saying during the call.
That call ends when the dispatcher says a police officer is at the main office and wonders if the caller has the location right.
The last bogus call was made Dec. 10 and involves the teen telling a dispatcher that he’d cut off the tip of his finger while cutting cucumbers for a salad.
Police and paramedics rushed to a house in the 2000 block of Southwest Golf Lane, but didn’t find an emergency.
Dispatchers traced the call to the Boynton Beach Mall area where they spotted a teenager who matched the description of a person who previously made a false 911 call and was captured on video.
The boy agreed to speak with detectives and allowed them to search his phone.
They used the phone to call 911 and dispatchers confirmed it was the same number that the earlier call came from.
The teen was taken to the Juvenile Assessment Center and could face further charges.
Copyright 2016 The Palm Beach Post