CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A man accused of making fake threats to schools and police departments in five different states while he was in Arizona was arrested in Charlotte on Wednesday.
James Thomas Andrew McCarty, 20, is facing a total of 26 charges after authorities say he called to falsely claim he was going to attack various schools across the country from January to June 2021. McCarty was arrested in Charlotte on Wednesday and is being held at the Mecklenburg County Detention Center.
According to an indictment, McCarty called in threats to schools in Georgia, Indiana, New Jersey, Ohio, and Oklahoma. During these calls, McCarty made false claims he had killed people, had pipe bombs, and was going to shoot up schools, among other things.
The calls were made while McCarty was in Kayenta, Arizona, a Navajo Nation town in the northern part of the state, according to the indictment.
An arrest warrant was issued for McCarty on Nov. 30. He was located in Charlotte and arrested on Wednesday.
McCarty is charged with nine counts of making a false statement, eight counts of false information, one count of stalking, and one count of aggravated identity theft.
The instances McCarty is accused of can be described as "swatting." Swatting is the act of making a hoax call to law enforcement to cause a large police or SWAT team response.
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