Armed officers in Kentucky responded to a call from a 17-year-old boy saying he killed two people — but they discovered that the 911 call was a butt-dial while the teenager was playing a video game. Elijah Sierocki was playing Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, a popular online first-person shooter, Jan. 5, when police descended on his house following the mistaken call. Sierocki unintentionally admitted he had committed double murder in the 4-minute 911 call, leaving the teenager shaking for 4-hours as police searched his house.
Let’s be honest, he should be thrown in gamer jail anyway for only making two kills.
The 17-year-old uploaded video of the incident, which shows him trying to explain a confusing call to officers, who can be seen pointing guns directly at him. Emerging from his house, arms raised, Sierocki begins explaining to officers that their quick response, only minutes after making the call, was not necessary. ‘”I was playing the game and I butt dialed the phone,” he is heard saying, his voice appearing to waver as he speaks to armed officers.
‘OK, are you sure,’ the armed officer is heard saying from a distance as Sierocki remains standing frozen at his front door.
‘What? No, no, it’s only me home,’ Sierocki continues.
‘Call him to you,’ said one officer. ‘Keep walking to us,’ another is heard saying as Sierocki begins to slowly make his way out of the home toward the officers.
‘Everybody inside, OK?’ asks one officer who appears to be off-screen in the Ring camera footage.
‘Nobody is inside it’s only me,’ Sierocki said.
‘OK, bring him out,’ said one officer. ‘Hey buddy what’s your name?’ another is heard asking as Sierocki gets closer to the officers.
Speaking with Sam Goldberg of Law&Crime on his After Hours podcast, Sierocki said that he had not noticed the phone until after the killings from playing video games, reaching for the phone to look at TikTok.
“So, I reached for my phone to watch TikTok — which is usually what I do after a death — and I saw a call pop up on my phone. I have got three calls from dispatch trying to get ahold of me in order to find out what is going on. In less than two minutes, my dogs started barking outside my front door, and they’re pretty smart dogs. They ran over to the couch in another room to me, then ran right back out the front door.”
The teenager said he believes that the call was made from the iPhone’s Emergency Call function, which occurs when you press the Volume and Power buttons together.
There were four patrol cars outside, he said.
“I had two choices: Either I stayed in and they banged on my front door, or I went outside and put my hands up.”
As he walks outside, he says, he realizes one of the sheriff’s deputies on his right has his gun drawn.
“It scared me,” Sierocki said. Because he is sort of jumping around a bit. During a follow-up meeting, the teenager said that he was quizzed on what was really going on, patted down, and asked to put his hands behind his back — all while the gun was still pointed at him. Sierocki said he was visibly shaking, to the extent that one friend, who was in an online Xbox party, reiterated it.
“He was scared because there was a gun pointed at him,” said his friend. But police eventually had a friendly conversation with the enthusiastic player, following his ordeal. The cop asked, as they were holding Elijah, Who is your favorite gamer?
A spokesperson for the Boone County Sheriff’s Office said that they will have to review the incident further before offering comment. They said they are in the process of gathering video from the body-worn cameras as part of an open records request filed with Law&Crime.