911 Calls from Emmett/Caldwell Football Game Released

Idaho Dispatch has received all of the phone calls that came into Canyon County Dispatch on October 2nd, 2020 over an incident at Caldwell High School.

The calls were made regarding an incident where Ammon Bundy was at Caldwell High School to watch his son play football for Emmett High School.

Bundy refused to wear a mask and the Caldwell High School Principal, Superintendent, and the Emmett football coach said the game would be called at halftime if Bundy didn’t leave the premises or put on a mask despite Bundy being outside the perimeter fence.

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The game was canceled at halftime and the school said that it was canceled after a threat to the school came into Canyon County Dispatch (CCD). You can read our full recap here.

Additionally, the Idaho Statesman reported that threats to the football game were the reason it was canceled at halftime. Here was the quote they had from Lt. Hoadley of the Caldwell Police Department:

Canyon County dispatch began receiving multiple calls from unidentified callers threatening acts of violence at the game stemming from the dispute over masks. …at which time the decision was made to cancel the game for the safety of students and fans.

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Idaho Dispatch has been asking the Canyon County Sheriff’s Office for the phone calls to find out the nature of the threat(s) and we received the calls today.

There are 18 phone calls in total that were placed to CCD. Idaho Dispatch wants to first show you two of the phone calls that came into CCD as the calls that may be perceived as a “threat” but we will let our readers decide.

They are listed by the Canyon County Prosecutor’s Office as “Call 7” and “Call 11.”

It is unclear if these calls are listed in the order they were received into CCD or not. From listening to all the phone calls, the ones that take place later from media outlets do appear to be after the game has been canceled but Idaho Dispatch has asked the prosecutor’s office for clarification.

Here are Calls 7 and 11 of 18:

While this is two different phone calls, the caller sounds like the same individual but we do not know that definitively. That is a clarification we are seeking from the prosecutor’s office.

In the first phone call (Call 7), there does not appear to be a direct or indirect threat to the school or the football game.

The dispatcher does ask if the caller was making a threat after he asked her if she knew that police departments were being burned down all across the country. The caller makes mention of police stations but does not mention the football game or the school itself.

On the second phone call, the caller asks if it is okay to “shoot the police at 30 frames per second” and then asks the same question but says “60 frames per second” instead.

The dispatcher informs him that he is not allowed to shoot the police and also tells him that if he is going to the high school to take pictures that he is allowed to do that.

The man says that he has a new camera and wants to go to the high school to “shoot the police at 60 frames per second.”

No direct threat is made to the school itself or to the individuals at the football game.

Was there a perceived threat against Caldwell police officers and that is why the game was canceled? That is a question we are asking the Caldwell Police Department.

Out of the other 16 calls, several of the callers were upset about the incident at the high school but there is does not appear to be any direct or indirect threat.

Several media outlets called the Canyon County Dispatch to ask questions about the incident.

Three of the calls from the media are listed as Call 14, Call 16, and Call 17. The calls were made by KIVITV, KTVB, and KBOI 2 respectively.

On Calls 14 and 16, the dispatcher says that there was a “disturbance” at the football game. She does not identify any “threat” to the football game.

Was the disturbance she referenced the situation with Ammon Bundy and his choice to not wear a mask?

On the call with KBOI 2 (Call 17), a news anchor named Natalie Hurst says that one of their employees was at the game. Hurst discusses the Ammon Bundy situation and says she is pretty sure she knows everything that happened but wanted confirmation.

No mention is made on the call about a “threat” to the school or the game on the call by either Hurst or the dispatcher and KBOI’s initial article about the incident does not mention a threat to the game.

Idaho Dispatch has compiled all of the calls into one video so you can listen to all of them here:

If the Caldwell Police felt that either Call 7 or Call 11 were threats to the football game and that it needed to be canceled according to their concerns, we have additional questions about the Caldwell Police Department’s protocols for threats of violence.

In the videos shot by Bundy right after the game, the police officers in the area are all next to Bundy as he was interacting with people from the crowd who were upset with him. It is unclear if other officers were watching over the fans and staff as they were leaving the game or if all of them were near Bundy.

Did Caldwell P.D. dispatch additional units because of the 911 calls that they said canceled the game and what additional actions did they take after they acted on the 911 calls?

We are reaching out to the Caldwell P.D. to seek additional answers.