A Black Lives Matter activist was the target of 'swatting' for a third time after a 911 caller on Wednesday evening claimed they had kidnapped her.
Melina Abdullah, who is suing the Los Angeles Police Department over another ‘swatting’ incident in August 2020 during which heavily armed officers surrounded her home, was not there when the latest incident occurred.
Capt. Stacy Spell, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman, said the department received a 911 call about 5:45 pm from a person who falsely claimed he had kidnapped Abdullah at gunpoint.
A neighbor who was home noticed the police and Facetimed Abdullah, who saw a fleet of police cars and officers outside with guns drawn, according to KTLA.
Due to the 'serious nature' of the caller's threats to 'do harm' to Abdullah, the department dispatched six police units and a supervisor to the scene, all of whom left 'shortly after it was determined that no one’s safety was in danger,' Spell said.
Melina Abdullah, pictured, took to Instagram on Wednesday to denounce the LAPD after the third 'swatting' incident, the second of which to occur within the last week
The BLM activist posted a statement last week to address last Thursday's 'swatting' incident, which occurred the day after she had announced her lawsuit against the LAPD
On the morning of Sept. 23, she was targeted with another false 911 call. An unknown caller claiming to be Abdullah’s 11-year-old son (who was in school at the time) falsely claimed that she had overdosed on pills and required medical assistance, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Officers who arrived at Abdullah's home were quickly 'able to determine that she was not in any danger'.
Abdullah posted a statement regarding the Sept. 23 'swatting' incident on her Instagram account, hinting at a connection between the recent 'swatting' events and her lawsuit against the police department, which she publicly announced the dday before the incident.
'While the LAPD response was far more restrained than last year's, and not blatantly violent, it triggered traumas from the previous incident, as I believe was their intent' she wrote.
'I find it incredulous that such an incident would occur less than 24 hours after my attorneys and I announced a lawsuit against the LAPD for their extremely violent response and infliction of harm against me in August 2020.'
'The timing is not coincidental,' she told the Times.
In the incident from last year, a prankster claimed he was going to kill hostages held inside Abdullah's home, causing a response from the police department. In that case, the caller used 'anonymizing technologies' to obscure their identity and location, according to the LA Times.
'Someone, or some force, I suspect they are police, trying to intimidate me out of work, trying to intimidate me out of the movement. I will never give up,' she said during an Instagram live video posted after Wednesday night's incident.
No arrests have been made in any of the three 'swatting' incidents.
'Swatting' is 'making a prank call to emergency services in an attempt to bring a large number of armed officers to a particular address,' according to Oxford Languages.
Abdullah, a co-founder of BLM’s LA chapter and a supporter of the ‘defund the police’ movement, claims the overwhelming police responses were done in retaliation for her activism, and put her and her family at risk.
'This was a clear case of LAPD ... attempting to terrorize us,' Abdullah told the Los Angeles Times.
'They made no attempt to keep me or my children safe, and this was actually an infliction of harm.'
Melina Abdullah (seen above in Los Angeles in June 2020), a co-founder of Black Lives Matter's Los Angeles chapter, is suing the Los Angeles Police Department
On August 19, 2020, the LAPD received a 911 call from someone who claimed he had taken people hostage in Abdullah’s home in the Crenshaw section of the city
Abdullah livestreamed the incident on her Instagram account (above)
The Crenshaw home that was 'swatted' is said to be worth between $1.3million and $1.6million, according to realtor web sites
Abdullah's name is also on the deed of another home in the Leimart Park section of Los Angeles that was purchased in 2003. Realtor sites estimate that the home
