The act of “swatting”, or sending armed police to somebody’s house as a prank, is up there with about the dumbest things you can do. So when police in Canada and Florida got a chance to actually arrest someone suspected of faking a school shooting, they went right after him.
A 17-year-old Canadian (pictured above with his face censored), who cannot be identified because he’s a minor, is in custody after a joint operation between police in Florida and British Columbia. The boy is alleged to have made two threats against Fort Meade High School earlier this year, one saying he would “shoot everyone” at the school and the other that he would “blow everyone up”.
Both threats were made to target a girl he reportedly met online, who had rejected his advances. The girl, also unnamed, was not only forced to move schools, but was also the subject of a third swatting, when the same boy called police, gave the girl’s home address and claimed “he was inside the house, had killed his parents, and would kill any officers who came to the scene.”
All three hoaxes brought a police response, with the shooting threat resulting in the school being placed on lockdown, police spending “several hours searching for an armed suspect.”
He was arrested after police tracked both phone calls and emails to his home.
The CBC reports that the boy, who is being tried in Canada, has been charged with “one count of extortion, three counts of public mischief, and three counts relating to breach of probation”. He’s also going to be the subject of civil action, which will “recoup thousands of dollars in wasted police resources”.
Comments
11 responses to “Canadian Kid Arrested Over ‘Swatting’ Hoaxes”
I think they should come in hard on anyone who partakes in swatting, someone is going to end up shot.
Attempted Murder maybe?
Highest criminal charge someone would get is likely accessory to manslaughter or negligent homicide. Their actions were indirectly responsible for the death of another and it would depend on whether the law sees the police officer as a person killing someone (accessory) or if the officer in question was acting as a tool of said swatter (homicide).
*edit
There’s also room for a conspiracy charge there, the idea of swatting someone is done with the intent of causing difficulty in some way shape or form to another. It is reasonable to assume the person swatting knew that getting someone shot was a potential outcome of the act and therefore it could be seen that the person swatting was hoping this was the case when the call was placed.
Definitely deserve it. People don’t realise that swatting is actually a crime and deserved to be punished.
To quote Mr Burns… eeeexcellent.
Hope he gets tried as an adult.
I hope so too. He’s 17. It concerns me that the law might be lenient because he is a minor.
Is the adult punishment for this crime going to be worse than the child version?
Several hundred hours of community service sound like a great way for him to pay for his crimes.
Usually the punishment is more severe, as you’re judged capable of telling right from wrong.
Hopefully this will deter any future instances of swatting, there’s a better way to time to spend your time trolls! =)
Doing it once was a stupid thing to do. Doing it three times added an extra layer of stupid because he was now painting a big, red bullseye on himself.