Melina Abdullah, Los Angeles activist and co-founder of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, was once again targeted in a “swatting incident” at her home Wednesday night.
“Swatting” is when someone makes a fake emergency call for help sending emergency responders to a location.
This is the third time Abdullah has been the victim of a ‘swatting incident’, and the second time since just last week.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Abdullah wasn’t home at the time of the incident but that multiple neighbors notified her of a large police presence on her block. One neighbor reportedly put Abdullah on Facetime so she could see the police with the guns drawn outside her home.
Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson, Captain Stacy Spell, told the L.A. Times they received a call at 5:45 p.m. from a person who claimed to have kidnapped Abdullah and held her at gunpoint.
“It is the department’s obligation to treat every radio call, especially those threatening violence, seriously until we can determine otherwise,” Spell said.
On Sept. 22, Abdullah filed a lawsuit against the department and the city for the first ‘swatting incident’ that occurred at her house in August 2020. The lawsuit claimed the LAPD’s response was meant to intimidate her due to her activism and said the officers should have known the call was a hoax.
Abdullah tweeted about the third incident, writing “LAPD, white supremacists, and haters…NO ONE WILL EVER SCARE ME OUT OF THIS WORK.”