May 2, 2026

Summerdale Swatting Incident is the 6th in Two Years

By Rick McCann
Blue RAM Media/Gulf Coast News

MAY 2, 2026

SUMMERDALE, Ala. On Thursday night at around 7 p.m., while many of us were enjoying dinner or watching a little bit of TV and just relaxing as another work week was wrapping up, a very dangerous plot was playing out in a quiet neighborhood in Summerdale.

The Baldwin County 911 Communications Center received a call that a man, on West Washington Street was holding four people hostage and that he was going to shoot them.

The dispatcher quickly dispatched officers to the home and they in turn immediately requested assistance from other law enforcement agencies including Elberta, Foley, and the Silverhill police, the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Department and FBI agents according to police chief Michael Gaull.

The Summerdale Fire Department and ambulances were also dispatched to stage nearby should medical assistance be needed.

After further investigation please found that no one was being held, no one had been shot and once again, this had been a hoax, also known as “Swatting”, which is a class C Felony in Alabama.

The chief told us that the investigation is continuing and when the suspect is caught, they’ll face serious consequences.

But on Friday, May 1st, 2026, someone called a bomb threat into 911 saying that a bomb would explode on West Washington Street in Summerdale.
This too was a hoax.

But this was not the first incident of its kind in Baldwin County. In fact, it’s at least the fifth swatting incident in Baldwin County in the last two years.

Fairhope has been targeted three different times.

On Monday, December 15^th, 2025, the Fairhope police received a call about an active shooter inside the Walmart Store located at County Road 48 and State Highway 181.

Law enforcement responded to the area and cleared the store.
After a thorough investigation, police found that there were no active shooters and no threat to the public. The store was allowed to continue their business.

Police deemed the call to be a hoax.

Law enforcement, fire personnel and EMS also responded to a “swatting” incident in the Whitehouse Forks area.
A caller said that his father had abused him and that he shot his father.
Once again, law enforcement determined that call to always be a hoax.

And Fairhope was once again the scene of a “swatting” incident on New Year’s Eve just as a big celebration was about to take place downtown with thousands of people ready to bring in 2025.
This time it was a bomb threat.

Parts of the downtown area were temporarily shut down and roped off by police after a threat against the city was received.
According to police, a threat was received online, and officers were immediately dispatched to the downtown area just hours before the New Year’s Eve celebration was to begin.

Police called in the Mobile Police Bomb Squad and a K9 Team from Orange Beach who worked together to clear the downtown business area and thankfully, no explosive devices were found, and the celebration went on without any further threats.

On January 30^th, 2025, a bomb threat was called into the Baldwin County Courthouse, prompting the immediate evacuation of everyone in the building. Once again, police searched the entire building and no explosives were found.
In this incident, Daniel Ethan Howell was arrested for making a terroristic threat in the first degree.
A person who was also involved in the incident, Donald Eugene Ippolito, was charged with Criminal Solicitation by the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office.

Alabama passed a new law in 2024 specifically defining and criminalizing “swatting”—the act of making false reports to emergency services to trigger a law enforcement response. Under Alabama Code § 13A-10-9.1, it is a class C Felony to knowingly report false information that causes an emergency response, with penalties escalating up to a Class A felony if the act results in serious injury or death.