Bend police respond to hoax call at Old Mill residence

Published 1:29 pm Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Bend Police received a hoax call from a man Tuesday afternoon saying he shot someone at a residence near the Old Mill District, according to spokesperson Sheila Miller.

“We have no evidence that what the person said what happened, happened,” she said.

Police were unable to locate the caller, Miller said. 

Law enforcement officers and medics from the Bend Police Department, the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office and Bend Fire & Rescue responded to a home in the 100 block of SW Taft Avenue after a call at 12:17 p.m., Miller said.

Because of the nature of the call — a man saying he shot someone — armored vehicles from Bend Police and the sheriff’s office were sent to the home, she said. Negotiators stayed on the line with the caller for several minutes, Miller said.

Police contacted the owners of the home the caller said he was in, and found nothing of consequence in the home, she said.  The home was vacant at the time, and the houses immediately surrounding it were evacuated, she said.

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“We are conducting an investigation into the origin of the call,” Miller said.