A man faces potential charges after reportedly calling 911 on himself in an apparent attempt to “goad” police into a racial incident.
“This event tied up police resources for an extended period of time and unnecessarily placed our officers, our community, and the subject making the false call at risk,” Arlington, Washington, Police Chief Jonathan Ventura said of the incident on a radio interview with host Jason Rantz. “This call highlights the training and professionalism of our officers despite the apparent attempt to goad law enforcement into some type of negative response or altercation.”
“These type of calls only serve to create division at a time when we need unity,” Ventura told the Washington Examiner.
The incident started when someone identifying themselves as “Stacy Williams” called 911 in Arlington in February to report a black teenager in a tan hoodie, telling dispatch the teenager was holding a handgun with a red bandana tied around it. The caller said the teenager looked “too young to even have a pistol. He only looks 16, 17 years old.”
“Well, I’m at the bus stop, and there’s a colored young man, and I can see a pistol right there,” the 911 caller said. “I saw him fidgeting a pistol at the bus stop kind of scared me.”
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When police arrived at the scene, they identified Tamon Leverette as the suspect due to the detailed description from the 911 caller but did not find any weapons after a brief search.
“Tamon pulled up his left pant leg, showing me a Department of Corrections (DOC) GPS tracking ankle band,” an officer wrote in the incident report. “He informed me that he was not doing anything wrong, just waiting for the bus to come so he could go to his DOC check in with his assigned DOC Officer.”
The police officer told Leverette that he “wanted to understand why someone would call in with concerns that he was handling a firearm at the bus stop as described.” Leverette told the officers he wasn’t sure, but he did not have a weapon and thanked them for their professionalism.
But the next day, Leverette told his supervising DOC officer that he was a victim of racial profiling the day before.
His DOC officer reported that Leverette told him “he was stopped and frisked by ‘Everett Police’ for no reason the previous day because of ‘being black.’”
Looking to follow up on the incident, officers called “Stacy Williams” back but noticed after getting no answer that the voicemail message sounded similar to Leverette’s voice.
“I noted that the voicemail was set up by a male with a voice that seemed very similar to that of Tamon,” the DOC officer said in his report. “I asked Dispatch if this phone number had been previously used for any calls to 911 Dispatch. The Dispatcher notified me shortly after that the phone number had called 911 on five separate occasions in December of 2020 for ‘Civil’ calls at an address of 520 Commercial Ave, Darrington WA. Dispatch advised me that the only name used to call into 911 on those incidents was ‘Tamon L.’”
The officers then made contact with Leverette’s DOC supervisor, finding out that Leverette’s number matched the number that dialed 911.
Police say it was the second time Leverette was involved in a fake 911 call, making a similar call in December under the name of “Eric Johnson.”
“I’m with my daughters right now,” the caller said. “There’s a young African American male teenager. He has on black and red. I’ve seen he has a gun on him. And, you know, I have my children here.”
Police searched a male identified as “Tamon,” but determined he “was not armed and had not made any threats.”
Leverette was arrested and could face two counts of false reporting, but no charging decisions have been made in the case.
Police say Leverette’s motive is unclear, but his DOC supervisor noted that he “has mentioned that he (Leverette) could see himself in a similar situation as ‘George Floyd.’”
Ventura said it’s unfortunate the hoax happened at a time when police are trying to earn the trust of the community.
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“To have this type of situation come up at a time where we’re working so hard to bridge that gap and to be more transparent and open with our communities and to build a stronger relationship with our communities,” he said, “This really works against us in making that happen at a time where we’re being told that we need to be working harder than ever. It’s just so anti-productive, and it really, unfortunately, ties up our resources.”
Arlington Police did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
