A Milwaukee couple who were swatted 55 times in a single year were paid a $575,000 settlement by the city of Milwaukee last month. The Common Council approved it in May, weeks before the federal lawsuit was scheduled for trial, court records show.
Patrick Tomlinson and Niki Robinson say they endured relentless false emergency calls from 2022 to 2023 that repeatedly sent armed Milwaukee Police Department officers — carrying long guns and ballistic shields — to their front door.
“Every time, you can’t not fear for your life to some degree when you have a shotgun racked and loaded, pointed directly at your face,” Tomlinson said.
Swatting is a crime in which someone falsely reports an emergency at a specific address to trigger a heavy police response…