By Brian Konrad

Hospital threat deemed a prank

Regional hospital locked down after online threat

May 6, 2020 | 8:26 AM

MEDICINE HAT — The Medicine Hat Regional Hospital was placed on lockdown for a short period last night, after on-line threats were posted on the Internet platform Reddit.

After investigation, city police determined the threat originated as a form of retaliation against a 12 year old former Medicine Hat boy living in Airdrie, who had been involved in an online game with others in different parts of North America.

One of the other players became angry and said they were going to “swat” the younger player, meaning they would make a prank call to emergency services.

S/Sgt. Trevor Humphries with the MHPS Patrol Unit said it’s an especially stressful time for those at the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital and added this false report is troubling.

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“The disruption of service that they would have gone through and the disruption of their safety is very concerning to us as a police service,” said Humphries. “Fortunately, we were able to understand the event before we put our tactical team on standby or had them attend the hospital for any concern.”

Investigators traced the I-P address associated with the threat and determined it was from Seattle, however there likely won’t be any charges laid.

“We’ve isolated an IP address in Seattle,” said Humphries. “Our investigators that are proficient in this sort of thing are very aware that IP addresses can be spoofed, can be copied. So, at this point the investigation won’t go any further.”

Once it was determined the threat wasn’t credible the hospital lockdown was lifted.

Humphries is asking parents to make sure their kids know the dangers present in the online gaming world to prevent future cases like this.

“The world of the internet has so many positive things but there’s obviously a lot of negative things as well,” said Humphries. “We really want to encourage parents that have children that are in gaming activities to have a very open dialogue with your children. Be very cautious about who they’re engaging with and who they’re sharing information with.”

According to Humphries this is the first such case of ‘swatting’ in Medicine Hat, however there have been similar cases reported in Taber and Leduc in recent years.