A caller to 911 told dispatchers early Saturday morning he killed his wife and was about to kill himself. That call turned out to be a prank, but what happened afterwards was no laughing matter.
An Omaha father may have been confronted with the most frightening moment of his life when several police officers, weapons drawn, surrounded his home at 148th and Webster, calling for him to come out. “It came out that he had shot his wife and was going to kill himself so this is a dangerous, potentially dangerous situation,” said Omaha Police Officer Cathy Martinec. Police at the scene were able to talk the man out of his house. Shortly thereafter, the rest of his family including his wife also appeared. “Discussing then with the family, they found out that one of the children that reside in the house was having some kind of confrontation with someone on the Internet or something, and for some reason decided to call police and make this type of call,” said Martinec, who said the situation was a result of a prank call made by that teenager inside the house. “I'm sure the parents were as shocked as we were when the call came out and they realized what was going on.” The teenager was not arrested, but that doesn't diminish the seriousness of the situation. “It just tied up an awful lot of officers at that time of night when there are other things going on.”
Police said the teenager was not arrested because they believe the parents could take care of the situation. However, making a false report to 911 can lead to an arrest and police will prosecute if necessary.
We spoke to the homeowner Saturday afternoon and he said someone who lives in another state made the call. Police still say a teenager inside the home was responsible for the call.