Two days after a man called in a phoney emergency at Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley's South Carolina home, she was targeted by a second "swatting" attempt on New Year's Day, this time by someone who claimed Haley had shot her daughter, according to an incident report seen by Reuters.
A Charleston County sheriff's officer rushed to Haley's home on january 1 after a person described as "Rose" called 911 and claimed Haley's kid was laying in a pool of blood and Haley was threatening to shoot herself, according to a sheriff's office report. The caller claimed to be on the phone with Haley.
According to the report, the constable interacted with an unnamed woman at the front door who matched Haley's description and swiftly decided the call was a fake. The january 1 swatting attempt had not before been publicised.
The hoaxes against Haley, who is running against front-runner former President donald trump for the Republican presidential nomination, took place on Kiawah Island, a wealthy, gated South Carolina island of around 2,000 people.
According to Reuters, Haley's Kiawah Island property was swatted on december 30 after a guy contacted officials and claimed to have shot a lady and threatened to hurt himself at her home.
The swatting incidents are part of a wave of violent threats, bomb scares, and other acts of intimidation directed at government officials, members of the judiciary, and election administrators that has alarmed US law enforcement officials ahead of this year's presidential election.
Haley did not immediately return a request for comment. The sheriff's office has not publicly named any of the suspects in the phoney calls.
Swatting is the practice of making fake police complaints in order to elicit a potentially hazardous response from cops. Law enforcement specialists believe it is a kind of intimidation or harassment that is increasingly being used to target famous persons, including authorities involved in Donald Trump's legal and criminal proceedings.
On NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, Haley hinted to a second swatting effort but did not offer a date or information about what transpired. "I believe we have had it happen twice," she stated.
Swatting instances have increased in the last two months, affecting both Trump's friends and enemies as he runs for reelection.
"Swatting and physical threats are designed to terrorise the civil servants upon whom our democracy depends," said David Becker, executive director of the nonpartisan Centre for election Innovation and Research. "As the presidential campaign ramps up, it appears that harassment is increasing."
Targets have included vocal opponents of trump, such as Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat who excluded him off her state's primary ballot. Judges and at least one prosecutor working on cases against trump have been attacked. trump supporters, such as U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, have also received swatting efforts.