Columbia woman charged for calling in fake hostage situation

The Boone County Prosecutor’s Office charged April Brashier, 42, on Friday with one count of making a terrorist threat for allegedly reporting a false hostage situation with a gun last week.

Brashier was taken into custody Tuesday. According to a probable cause statement, Brashier admitted to making the June 22 phone call to Boone County Joint Communications reporting a hostage situation on Apple Tree Court.

The probable cause statement claims more than 35 Columbia police officers responded to the call that afternoon, including off-duty members of the SWAT team. Dozens of residents were evacuated from their homes in the area and streets were blocked off for more than two hours.

Right before the call was made, officers were attempting to take Brashier into custody for other active warrants just a mile away at her mother’s home on Monterey Drive.

Officers noticed Brashier’s car parked behind the home, but said no one inside the home responded when officers asked her to come out of the home. The probable cause statement said Brashier fled from officers earlier in the month while trying to arrest her on St. Charles Road.

Brashier told investigators she made the report because she wanted more time to get her things together before going to jail.

She’s currently being held in the Boone County Jail on a $50,000 bond for the terrorist threat charge.