He made claims about having hostages, explosives and a loaded gun.
He threatened to start killing people unless $15,000 was delivered to his address.
In response to the false threats a SWAT team raided Dobbs’ home.
They shot the 20-year-old in the face and chest with rubber bullets, resulting in broken
facial bones and bruised lungs.
Lee and McDaid were subsequently arrested, facing charges of up to 20 years in prison.
Coming up- a swatting incident is captured on live stream and it goes viral, but first
let’s take a look at the origins of the term.
Swatting is one person’s action of deceiving an emergency service into sending a response
team to another person’s address.
The swatter will typically lie to a dispatcher by claiming a serious emergency such as murder,
a hostage situation or a bomb threat.
The term itself is derived from the SWAT unit, meaning special weapons and tactics, which
is a specialized branch of law enforcement that handles critical incidents in the US.
It’s a type of intervention unit that’s present, under various names, in countries
all-over the world.
Swatting started as an online prank but soon became the means for enacting revenge among
people feuding online.
It’s a highly dangerous practice that can get people hurt and even killed.
Number 4 Jordan Mathewson Streamer Jordan Mathewson was already fairly
well known in the gaming community before the infamous incident of August 2014.
Mathewson was live streaming from his office when a SWAT team stormed in and ordered him
to get on the ground at gunpoint.
The whole scene was captured by his live stream and subsequently went viral.
Mathewson was taken in for questioning and released shortly after.
An unknown caller had contacted 911 and given the address of the man’s office while claiming
they’d shot two people and were holding others hostage.
Our next case involves a man who, despite being blind, became a dangerous phone hacker
from a young age.
But before we get to that, let’s find out how swatters can sometimes cover their tracks.
Tracking down a swatter may be a difficult task.
They can manipulate their caller ID data, disguise their voice or trick people into
divulging confidential information.
They can also use phreaking techniques, meaning that they explore the weaknesses in telecommunication
systems.
911 operators have been deceived by perpetrators placing calls from cities hundreds of miles
away or even from other countries.
The FBI first coined the term “swatting” in 2008.
The practice is most common in the gaming community, on livestreaming platforms such
as Twitch.
Although the issue is more prevalent in the US there’ve been reports of swatting, from
prank phone calls to more elaborate schemes, in countries all-over the world.
There are even those who offer their services for a fee, as a type of swatting mercenaries.
A number of celebrities have also been swatted at their homes including Miley Cyrus, Tom
Cruise, Justin Bieber or Snoop Dogg.
Number 3 Matthew Weigman Even though he was born blind, Matthew Weigman
developed a remarkable ability to imitate voices and memorize phone numbers by tone.
Weigman could even understand how a phone network system worked by listening to various
frequencies.
When he was 11 years old, he discovered party lines, a loop telephone circuit.
He would reportedly spend days on the telephone at a time, perfecting his skills.
Unfortunately, Weigman didn’t use his powers for good.
He did his first swatting when he was 14 years old, on a girl who refused his advances during
a party line session.
He used a forged ID and called 911 pretending to be a gunman holding her and her father
hostage.
Prior to his arrest at age 18, he performed up to 60 more forget SWAT calls.
He used his skills of phreaking phones to listen in on conversations, find unlisted
numbers or shut off clients’ phone services.
Towards the end of June, 2009, Weigman was sentenced to 11 years and 3 months in a federal
penitentiary.
Next up, there’s an incident that resulted in the nearly-fatal shooting of a Police Chief.
Before we learn about how he survived the ordeal, let’s see how swatting can actually
kill you.
Many have described swatting as an act of terrorism, since it’s used to intimidate
and create the risk of injury or death.
A SWAT team, or its equivalent in another country, typically shows up with military-grade
equipment such as body armor, door-breaching weapons, sniper rifles, automatic rifles or
submachine guns.
The team is responding to what they believe is a high-risk situation while the swatting
victims are blindsided by the intervention.
It’s a tensed meeting of circumstances that may produce a fatal outcome.
Swatting victims may fire first believing they’re actually the victims of a home invasion,
thus triggering a shootout.
The chances of a tragic outcome are increased when officers responding to the call come
from less-specialized branches of law enforcement.
In a tense situation, any confused gesture may be mistakenly interpreted as an act of
aggression.
Even if nobody gets hurt physically, victims may suffer mental or emotional trauma following
the intervention.
Additionally, mobilizing law enforcement wastes resources which may be allocated towards a
genuine emergency.
Number 2 James Edward Holly In January, 2015, dispatchers from the town
of Sentinel, Oklahoma, received a 911 call from a man claiming he was Dallas Horton.
He told them that he’d placed a bomb in the refrigerator of a local preschool, the
Sentinel Head Start.
It was supposedly set to go off just as the children were arriving for classes.
The building was evacuated and checked by a bomb squad but no explosive devices were
found.
Then, Sentinel Police Chief Louis Ross and several other officers forced their way into
Dallas Horton’s home.
The Police Chief was shot several times by Horton who had no idea that the police were
raiding his home.
Ross was hit in the chest and arm.
Fortunately, he was wearing a bulletproof vest and survived the shooting.
It was later discovered that a man named James Edward Holly, who was angry with Horton, had
made the call.
Holly had somehow made his calls untraceable by using two nonfunctioning phones.
In doing so, he faced several years in a federal prison.
Before we get to a tragic shooting that started out as a dispute over Call of Duty, let’s
see what measures may be taken against swatting.
There’s been an ongoing debate on whether cyber-security laws need to be tougher on
swatting.
As of the making of this video, swatting in the US can be prosecuted through federal criminal
statuses such as conspiracy to obstruct justice, conspiracy to commit device fraud or conspiracy
to retaliate against a victim, witness or informant.
The act in and of itself is not considered a federal crime.
Callers in the state of California are made to bear the cost of the intervention, which
can be up to $10,000.
The Seattle Police Department allows people such as celebrities or live streamers to register
in case they fear becoming victims.
They can give the SPD cautionary information to help them with potential swatting attempts.
Police departments are also advised to take caution when responding to calls received
through text-to-speech services or at their non-emergency numbers.
These may be attempts by swatters who live outside the area and can’t connect to the
regional 911 center.
Number 1 Tyler Barriss While living as a homeless man in Los Angeles,
California, Tyler Barriss was asked by Casey Viner to swat a man called Shane Gaskill.
The two had been feuding over Call of Duty: WWII and a $1.50 wager.
Viner threatened to swat Gaskill to which he responded that “he’d be waiting”
and gave him his former address in Wichita.
Barriss, known online as “SWAuTistic” had a criminal record for numerous bomb threats,
domestic violence and fraud.
He called 911 claiming that a suspect had killed his father, was holding his mother
and brother hostage and had been threatening to set the house on fire.
He gave the address that Gaskill had falsely claimed to be living at.
Wichita PD officers, who weren’t trained for tactical or hostage rescues, took the
call.
They surrounded the house and, before they could announce their presence, 28-year-old
Andrew Finch opened the front door.
An officer fired a single round from a Colt AR-15 rifle.
Finch was shot through the heart and lung and he was later pronounced dead.
The officer had reportedly reacted to Finch making a motion with his hand.
It’s worth mentioning that he wasn’t the intended swatting target and hadn’t even
played Call of Duty.
In the aftermath, Barriss was sentenced to 20 years in a federal prison.
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