A 54-year-old Bronx man may soon face criminal charges after allegedly placing 4,543 false 911 calls, many involving racially charged claims of rapes, shootings, assaults and kidnappings that police say never happened. Investigators say the calls sent officers racing to locations where they found no emergency, while tying up resources that could have been used for actual victims.
According to the New York Post, Yuri Kharlamov allegedly made the calls through the Bronx’s 46th Precinct, sometimes placing more than 25 or 30 calls in a single day. He reportedly used three different phone numbers, and the case has been referred to the Bronx District Attorney’s Office while the NYPD continues investigating.
False Emergency Calls Allegedly Sent Officers To Empty Scenes
The alleged reports included claims that three large Black men were raping a woman, that a white man was setting a Black man on fire on a subway, and that five white men had shot a 5-year-old child. Other calls reportedly involved six Jewish men beating a Black man, kidnappings and children being shot, with responding officers finding no evidence of the reported crimes.
The alleged conduct comes against the backdrop of an already heavily used city emergency system. A 2025 report from the NYC Office of Technology and Innovation describes New York’s 911 network as receiving roughly 9 million calls annually.
Data analyzed by the Vera Institute shows that nearly 3.7 million calls were assigned to the NYPD for response in 2025, and 96% did not involve violent crime. The organization said more than 1 million calls may be suitable for alternative responses, underscoring how quickly repeated false reports can consume police attention in a system already handling a broad range of public-safety and social-service needs.
Prior Arrests And Racially Charged Reports Under Review
The Post also reports that Kharlamov has 19 prior arrests and previously pleaded guilty to forcible touching after a 2019 incident in Manhattan’s West Village. In December 2022, he was arrested after allegedly reporting that the Proud Boys had placed a bomb beneath a car at the 46th Precinct stationhouse and after he was accused of throwing an egg at police officers.
The scale of the alleged calling pattern echoes a separate Bronx case reported by CBS New York in 2019. Police then accused Yogita Persaud of making more than 24,000 911 calls in several months, including more than 200 in one day, though she initially faced a charge tied to a single false report.
Potential Charges Have Not Yet Been Filed
Investigators are reportedly considering charges including falsely reporting an incident, reckless endangerment, aggravated harassment and disorderly conduct. New York’s Penal Law contains separate offenses for falsely reporting incidents in the third, second and first degrees, although the exact charges in this case will depend on evidence prosecutors believe can be proved.
No new arrest had been announced as of Saturday, and the Bronx District Attorney’s Office has not publicly detailed whether it will bring charges. For now, the alleged 4,543 calls remain under investigation, with officials weighing both the reported content and the public resources deployed in response.
