Kids called 911 about a multi-victim shooting. Now they’re the ones in trouble

Two children learned the hard way that if you call the police, they will come.

Columbia city dispatch received a call around 6 p.m. Friday, according to a Columbia Police Department incident report.

“The call sounded like it was coming from a child who stated that multiple people had been shot, and then a dog and cat were dead on Broad River,” the report states.

Officers canvassed the area and saw no signs of anyone having been shot, according to the report. Police said they then saw a juvenile girl with a cellphone in her hand, and that she ran back into her house on the 3700 block of West Avenue when she saw officers.

Police spoke with the girl and her mother, and the girl showed an officer where she made the false calls on the phone, the report states. A juvenile boy said he told the girl to make the calls.

Both children started to cry and apologized to police for making the calls, the report states. The girl’s mother took the phone from her and said she was throwing the phone away.

The report did not indicate the children’s exact ages, or if any charges were filed.