Threat against Ottawa police headquarters made to police in wrong Ottawa

A bomb threat directed at the Ottawa Police Service in the capital of Canada ended up first in the hands of police in Ottawa, Ohio.

Deputy Ottawa Police Chief Steve Bell said Monday that a threat made against police headquarters at 474 Elgin St. had originated in the United States and officials from Putnam County, Ohio assisted in the investigation.

Ottawa, Ohio is a village of about 4,300 people located in Putnam County, about 1,000 km southwest of Ottawa, Ont. It's also where the local sheriff's office can be found.

And it appears the suspect in this case, an individual from Akron, Ohio, got the two police services confused.

Capt. Brad Brubaker told CTV News Ottawa the suspect first called in a bomb threat to the police office in Ottawa, Ohio, citing the address of the police office in Ottawa, Ont.

“He Googled the number and got the wrong Ottawa,” Brubaker said. “He gave the bomb information and we talked to him for a little while before he hung up.”

Brubaker said the call was traced to Akron, about 250 km east of Ottawa, Ohio. The suspect then called back to make another fake call.

“He called again and said he’d been shot and gave an address in Ottawa, Canada. We told him he got the police office in Ottawa, Ohio and that we would forward the information to Canada and he said, ‘What? Oh, I haven’t been shot. I was just trying to waste their time.’ We then told him he called the bomb threat to us as well.”

Brubaker said the man, a 20-year-old, was angry about mask mandates in Canada.

“I thought he might be a trucker, but he’s just 20, with no [commercial driver’s licence],” Brubaker said.

Police in Canada's capital have been making international headlines for their response to a protest-turned-occupation in the heart of the city's downtown core near the Parliament buildings for nearly two weeks.

Demonstrators have left hundreds of heavy trucks and other vehicles, some of them immobilized, in the city's downtown in an attempt to protest public health measures meant to curb the spread of COVID-19.

The threat is still under prosecutorial review, Brubaker said, and it's unclear whether charges will be laid. Brubaker said he recommended a charge of inciting panic, but it’s ultimately up to prosecutors what, if any, charge will be filed.

Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly said Monday police resources, already strained from policing the "Freedom Convoy" protest, were further impacted by fake calls and threats.

"We have people phoning in false messages, swatting messages to our police operations centre for active explosive IED events, gun events, that are drawing our resources away," Sloly said. "We now have an active investigation south of the border to identify that."

Swatting is the act of calling police and lying that a major, life-threatening event is occurring at a particular location, in order to bring a significant number of police and emergency responders to the area.

To date, Ottawa police have made 23 arrests in connection with the demonstration downtown and more than 1,300 tickets have been issued.