Mahopac man arrested after 'swatting' incident in Somers

SOMERS, N.Y. - A Mahopac man has been charged in connection with an alleged swatting incident in Somers, state police said.

Mikel Kolaj, 31, was arrested on Thursday, Feb. 20, in Mount Kisco and charged with three counts of falsely reporting a crime, a Class A misdemeanor, police said.

On Thursday, Feb. 20, at around 11 a.m. troopers and investigators from the Somers barracks responded to a report of a “violent assault in progress” at a home on Chalmers Boulevard in the Somers hamlet of Amawalk.

Police said that the caller told them: “My neighbor is assaulting his wife, and her head is cracked open.”

According to police, the caller provided conflicting information about their identity and location, first claiming to be from Maryland, then correcting themselves to Poughkeepsie. They also stated that they were traveling on I-684.

Upon arrival at the scene, police determined that the call had been “a hoax.”

Further investigation found that a similar false report had been made earlier regarding the Amawalk complainant’s son at his residence in Pawling, a village in Dutchess County.

According to police, the son identified Kolaj, a former high school classmate, “as a potential suspect, citing prior threats against his brother’s girlfriend and a swatting incident on New Year’s Day.”

Investigators subsequently learned that Kolaj is also the subject of an ongoing criminal case with the Eastchester Police Department in connection with a similar alleged swatting incident.

State police said that Kolaj “provided a full confession, admitting to making multiple swatting calls in the past, including this one.”

“He stated that his first swatting incident had occurred at the beginning of the year and targeted the same family,” police said – hence the three counts.

Kolaj was released on his own recognizance. An order of protection was issued for the complainant in the Amawalk case.

Police reminded the public that making a prank call to emergency services in an attempt to draw a large number of armed police officers to a particular address is not only illegal but highly dangerous.

It diverts emergency resources and places individuals at risk, state police said, adding that authorities “take these incidents seriously and will continue to investigate and arrest those responsible.”