A 17-year-old in British Columbia, Canada — that’s him above — plead guilty to 23 cases of extortion, public mischief and criminal harassment. What does that mean, exactly? He’s terrifying.
You might have read about this kid last year. Tri-City News has been following the case, in which the teenager recently admitted to a dozen other charges. It’s one of the few times a swatter has actually been forced to face the music and when you read about what he’s pleading guilty to, you’re shocked it didn’t happen sooner.
This kid frequently targeted League of Legends players, and had more tricks than swatting:
The teen, who went under the same social media user or name (or a variation of it), would also retaliate by posting a target’s parents’ dates of birth, and social insurance and credit card numbers on the web, and had pizza which they had not ordered delivered to their home.
At the heart of the case against him was the story of his obsession with a female student at the University of Tucson. When she turned him down, he flipped out:
On Sept. 16, 2014, after she repeatedly rejected him, the teen called the Tucson police to prompt a swat of her home, claiming he had shot his parents with an AR15 rifle, had bombs and would kill the police if he saw any marked vehicles.
Days later, he swatted her mother, too. Then, he put the credit card info of the family online, distributed their social security numbers, hacked into the girl’s Twitter and email accounts and tried to cancel the family’s home utilities. It ultimately destroyed the family’s credit rating.
These wasn’t the only people he tormented and it eventually caught up with him, thanks to his obsession with sharing his attacks publicly online. (Then again, the reason he was sharing it in the first place is because it’s almost impossible to get convicted. It’s why people keep doing it.)
Even wilder, he was responsible for temporarily shutting down Space Mountain at Disneyland last year, netting him counts of harassment, extortion, uttering threats, breach of recognizance and seven separate counts of mischief.
How’d he react as his case was laid out for friends, family, victims, and the court?
Wearing a sweatsuit, no shoes and shackles on his ankles, the teen smirked but showed little emotion during the proceeding, though often flipped his hair, drummed his fingers on his knees or pumped his leg quickly.
Sounds about right.
Tri-City News says he should be back in court on June 29. Have fun in jail, kid.
Image Credit: Polk County Sheriff’s Office
Comments
40 responses to “This 17-Year-Old Swatter Sounds Like A Complete Bastard”
Kid sounds like an ass, but instead of running articles condemning people’s actions, why not look at how it can be prevented in the future so other kids don’t end up becoming little shits like this?
It’s nice to ostracize someone, because most people agree this person is a prick. But why not look at his life, his upbringing and other events that shed some light at why he ended up like this, so we can actually prevent this from happening in the future?
Articles like these are so superficial.
So what if they do studies and determine that people act out like this because of bullying, or maybe because his parents just didn’t give a shit about him. What measures can be taken to ensure that these things never happen to any child in the entire world ever again. None.
You will never stamp it out completely, same with murder, stealing, mugging, identity theft etc etc.
Also, believe it or not some people are just pricks for no reason and like nothing better than to make other peoples lives hell.
An individual’s actions are the combined responsibility of the individual and the society that inspires him. Is he to blame? Yes but a society isn’t without blame either. Either through a lack of proper legal repercussion or a decent social infrastructure as a child his peers have failed him.
Still, it’s no excuse. I was bullied at school, and I don’t go out of my way to cause trouble for people. He is in control of his own actions. Nobody’s putting a gun to his head and making him do it.
I’m sure everyone was bullied at school either by other kids or by adults. Even the bullies. However people are different; just because individual A doesn’t turn out fucked up doesn’t mean individuals B, C, D, E & F will as well.
Swatting has started to happen frequently enough to show it’s not a one-off so the sooner we have a constructive conversation about it the better. Nothing constructive comes from judging; it’s influenced purely by outrage and the pitchfork mentality that is inherent to everyone.
If every person here exhibiting rage at this person actually stopped and attempted to understand what drives a person to be so un-empathic we might be closer to understanding how to stop the problem.
Um, he’s a sociopath or psychopath. There’s no mystery about what drives people to be un-empathic.
So you’re coming to a conclusion without any empirical proof or study? Scientific method was skipped in high school was it?
Writing off everyone who swats as a sociopath or a psychopath is a pretty large generalization to be painting. Fold that generalization into the legal system and you have prejudice. Once again none of this is to excuse what he’s done; but either we act like a mob and lock him up and forget about it and do the same for everyone who’s already swatting out there or we use this as an opportunity to figure out what drives this behaviour. So that next time you can stop it.
There are times when an individual is not accountable for their actions. This is why there is a mental illness legal defense. Short of mental illness though, an individual is accountable for their own actions and you cannot pass the blame on society when you knowingly break the law no matter how hard your life is or has been.
I do hear you and I am sure there are a number of reasons for why he is the way he is and there is an argument that society is breeding these types of actions and there is cause to investigate and try to prevent it from happening. This should be to better society though and not offer an out to a criminal that chose to destroy another person and their families life. If he knew what he was doing was wrong, and chose to do it anyway, he deserves punishment for his actions and to pass the buck and lay blame at society and his peers or to try and shame others into feeling responsible for his actions is in my opinion a large part of the reason our society is seeing more of this type of entitled antisocial behavior.
edit: Came out a little harsher maybe than intended there. Sorry and not personal, just my opinion.
This isn’t meant to excuse what he’s done; let him get locked up for life for all I care. But if people walk around diagnosing this as a kid being an asshole then we aren’t doing anything to prevent future instances of this crime.
I agree with you on the ‘people are just pricks sometimes’ but I think @Coco was referring to the unfortunate people who see doing this kind of stuff as an escape from their crappy life. Some people think if they get treated bad, then that’s how they should treat people. Perhaps a footnote saying a little about this guys background and suggesting how he should be dealing with it.
Mind you, sometimes people should just be shamed for their atrocious actions.
Yep, a very small subset of people (thankfully) on this planet are sociopathic.
We can debate whether they were breast fed enough as children, or just accept the fact that some people are simply arseholes.
Whatever the cause it’s no excuse to be a shit soaked douchebag.
I don’t understand where you’re coming from. Do you think Kotaku are trained to deal with the social issues surrounding this guys reasons for abusing the technology and calling in a swat?
I think drawing attention to the growing problem of “swatting” is the point of this article.
I think he’s pointing out this article could’ve been more than a tabloid fluff piece exhibiting entertainment value outrage at a person the rest of the world would find very easy to hate. Maybe next time kotaku post an article like this they might put some thought into it and use it to start a discussion as opposed to passing judgement.
That said we could also all be billionaires tomorrow so I’m not holding my breath. People loving casting judgement too much and rarely want to catch it.
Says the person casting judgement on another.
I’m so glad the internet isn’t filled with people who make statements with no backing explanation; oh wait.
You want to explain how my comment is casting judgement on anything?
“Maybe next time kotaku post an article like this they might put some thought into it “
That’s like me writing articles drawing attention to the problem of car accidents, without trying to understand what’s actually causing them.
Stop making sense!
Nah, it’s easier to just feel great about not being as bad as him. I may not be doing anything positive but shut up and let me get all judgmental over a 17 year old idiot.
“These wasn’t…”
I WASN’T THE ONLY ONE!
With dicks like this around this world is becoming a pretty fucked up place to live.
Fucking scumbag, hope he rots.
Monkey treating the symptoms without understanding the disease is the surest way to never come up with a cure. This behaviour is clearly becoming epidemic and if steps aren’t taken to understand why we’ll never accurately pinpoint how to cease said actions.
Edit: FYI the world was always a fucked up place to live in; just depended on where you lived and how hard you looked =]
It’s not really the kid that’s terrifying, it’s the fact that most of what he did can be done by anyone with a bit of nous, time and a little ingenuity. I’m not saying he’s in any way innocent in all this, you still have a choice not to fire the gun, it’s just that it’s scarily easy in this day and age to do this kind of thing.
I wouldn’t have the first clue about how to do anything like that, nor do I want to know. But it seems that pretty much anyone under 25 would find it easy.
You could probably learn to do it in 5 minutes on Google lol i’ve spent so long protecting myself against this kind of stuff, that it makes you realise how easy it actually is. Scary stuff
The kid’s a jackass. But in all this, a question has to be raised about the Parents. Surely they have to take some responsibility as well.
Yes and no. There are parents out there that do their best to raise their kids, yet they still do shitty things like this, because all their friends are doing it or it’s easy to get away with or whatever. There comes a point where you have to be responsible for your own actions.
Thats why I said the question should be raised. I’m not laying blame because there just isn’t much info. Also by responsibility, I’m not saying the parents take the blame. Nothing will lessen his responsibility.
I know its hard to raise children. I have no illusions about it being easy. The question is, are the parents even aware? Were there any signs when he was younger of his antisocial or violent tendencies (was it a case of being parents who were too lenient), or was this a case where he grew up living inside his bedroom with his computer from a young age (something quite common today it seems) and just lived a separate life, online?
And for the issue about kids do shitty things because their friends do it. Sometimes it also takes a parent (or 2, maybe even with school involvement) to say, we need to identify the problem child and solve his/her issues, otherwise it’ll spread.
Its a complex social issue, that’ll need time, and alot of ideas and patience to solve, but it’ll keep spreading…
He’s a sociopath.. blaming anything beyond his sociopathic tendencies is just silly.
Oh it’s his parents! Oh it’s the environment! Oh it must be something.. anything.. other than the person committing the offences. He’s a sociopath. Many psychologists are still debating over whether a sociopath is formed from their environment but in the end, it is not the life you’ve been handed but what you do with it that matters.
Videogames made him do it!
The real problem with this type of offending is the low likelihood of detection and prosecution, which is the single biggest deterrent to criminal behaviour known to justice systems the world over.
If kids knew they’d be getting caught for doing this, there is no way in hell so many would be doing it. It’s an unfortunate by-product of the internet’s very nature, and the reason it’s so common.
America has a death penalty… I’m just saying.
Yes some people do these things due to circumstances of their environment, but the truth is some kids are just complete morons who genuinely don’t give a crap what they’re doing to others.
Hopefully gets pounded in prison.
Keyboard courage.
I think the problem is the laws haven’t really caught up to this.
There needs to be Laws against Swatting. There needs to be laws holding the person posting others details responsible. Now I know finding the person is hard, but it needs to get bad before anything is actually done. Clear laws and penalties will make getting caught far worse.
Imagine being held financially responsible for posting somebodies credit card details. Now I admit finding these people is hard, but clear laws and penalties make it easier when they are caught. And considering he attacked a girl who turned him down does have a very Stalker-ish vibe.
I see this problem happening more and more, people who don’t understand technology are way behind in passing legislation to prevent its misuse.
There are laws. Everything you’ve mentioned is completely covered with the existing framework. The problem is catching them, plain and simple.
I have no sympathy for the little prick. Wah wah he had a hard life, mummy didn’t love him enough, lets all feel sorry for a sociopath who takes pleasure in destroying the lives of innocent people….Clearly, he is a very disturbed individual. He’s aldo an overweight, fugly, antisocial grade A asshole. They should sentence him as an adult for 15+ years in a federal prison and feed him to the lions.
You always have a choice, no matter how hard your life is. I’m 25, have been through drug addiction and depression after my father commited suicide when I was 13. My grandmother and great grandmother died before I was 12, I’ve dealt with major depression and severe anxiety since I was 14. I used to drink heavily, pop pills, use needles to shoot drugs, got abused my mothers boyfriend at 5 years old and recieved little love as a child. I used to be in co-dependent relationships and got suicidal each time they ended. I had anger problems, social problems in school and did very poorly until I dropped out in yr10. I have many health problems and take medications with serious side effects.
Guess what? I dealt with all of this and continue to fight. I have no criminal record and have never harmed another living thing. I am happily married with two babies and life is on the up. I took hold of my life and never gave up. I grew up fast and learnt how to be wise, make good decisions and take responsibility for my actions. I am a passive person without being a doormat. My IQ is also around 130 despite doing poorly in school.
This kid deserves to be tied to a tree and whipped relentlessly. People ALWAYS have a choice and other ways of dealing with their unstable emotions or fragile mental state. I don’t buy any of this wah wah lets feel sorry for him bullshit, being perpetuated by people. You are a human being capable of making decisions and choosing where you go in life, unless you’re intellectually disabled.
Let him hang.