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First, to define the term SWATing, it is to place an anonymous call to local law enforcement, reporting a domestic violence shooting or hostage situation with shooting at an address where nothing has happened to provoke a SWAT or massive police response. All done for the sake of laughs. Frequently it's placed through a VOIP system such as Skype to make it all but impossible to trace the call back to its point of origin.
In this case, two guys were playing Call of Duty and had placed a $1.50 bet on the outcome of the game. One of the people whose Twitter handle was SWAuTistic, threatened to SWAT the other player, who dared him to do it. He then gave SWAuTistic a different address, I don't know how he came up with it. Police responded to that address with vigor, a man opened the front door, and six seconds later a single round was fired and he died. The dead man didn't have a weapon in hand, didn't play Call of Duty or any other video games, and had no connection to the argument.
SWAuTistic renamed his Twitter account, but not before Brian Krebs captured his message history. Krebs later engaged in a direct message interview with the holder of the renamed account, said person admitted to what he did and that he had done other SWATings and similar bomb threats, including shutting down an FCC hearing on net neutrality.
Krebs updated his post this morning to report that police in Los Angeles have arrested a 25 year old man in connection with this incident. I'm hoping it was SWAuTistic, though I'm curious if Kansas officials can charge the other person who provided the false address with a crime, I have no idea what it might be.
SWAuTistic posted on his Twitter feed "I DIDNT GET ANYONE KILLED BECAUSE I DIDNT DISCHARGE A WEAPON AND BEING A SWAT MEMBER ISNT MY PROFESSION". Making a false police report is illegal, in many states it's a misdemeanor but in some states it's a felony, and in such a state you could conceivably be charged with felony manslaughter. Regardless, if he's correctly identified, he can be sued out of existence in civil court by the family of the slain man, just like OJ was. And his future job prospects are nil.
There was an obvious overreaction by the Kansas SWAT department: there's no way one member could evaluate a situation and make a decision to fire in six seconds. What if it was a hostage that had been released. What if it had been a wrong address, as has happened in many SWAT responses. So there's definitely some culpability there, but the main blame is with SWAuTistic.
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/12/kansas-man-killed-in-swatting-attack/
ETA: This Ars Technica article has more information. Apparently the CoD game was between "A" and "B", "A" wanted to get "B" SWATted and contacted SWAuTistic for said services. SWAuTistic then goaded "B" in to providing the address. The Wichita Police said that the dead man had spotlights on him and obeyed commands to raise his hands, then he lowered them before raising them again. An officer thought he was reaching for a gun in his waistband.
Let's take a worst possible case. Night time. Man with one or more spotlights shining directly in his face. Has a handgun. Several police officers with (probably) AR-15 rifles, wearing body armor and protective helmets that are safe against handguns unless you're shot in the throat or neck, in positions that the man can't see because he's blinded by the spotlight(s). His chances of hitting an officer are not much above zero. Yes, it's a non-zero chance of him hitting an officer, but it's pretty damn low. There's definitely going to be some scrutiny of Wichita Police practices. It'll be interesting to see what our Pumpkin-In-Chief and the elf in charge of the Justice Dept. have to say about this incident.
Meanwhile, deaths for law enforcement officers dropped significantly, falling to their lowest number since 2013. Law enforcement has never been "the most dangerous job", I believe deep water fishing has held that record for a while. IIRC, it's not in the top 5, though it may be in the top 10.
In this case, two guys were playing Call of Duty and had placed a $1.50 bet on the outcome of the game. One of the people whose Twitter handle was SWAuTistic, threatened to SWAT the other player, who dared him to do it. He then gave SWAuTistic a different address, I don't know how he came up with it. Police responded to that address with vigor, a man opened the front door, and six seconds later a single round was fired and he died. The dead man didn't have a weapon in hand, didn't play Call of Duty or any other video games, and had no connection to the argument.
SWAuTistic renamed his Twitter account, but not before Brian Krebs captured his message history. Krebs later engaged in a direct message interview with the holder of the renamed account, said person admitted to what he did and that he had done other SWATings and similar bomb threats, including shutting down an FCC hearing on net neutrality.
Krebs updated his post this morning to report that police in Los Angeles have arrested a 25 year old man in connection with this incident. I'm hoping it was SWAuTistic, though I'm curious if Kansas officials can charge the other person who provided the false address with a crime, I have no idea what it might be.
SWAuTistic posted on his Twitter feed "I DIDNT GET ANYONE KILLED BECAUSE I DIDNT DISCHARGE A WEAPON AND BEING A SWAT MEMBER ISNT MY PROFESSION". Making a false police report is illegal, in many states it's a misdemeanor but in some states it's a felony, and in such a state you could conceivably be charged with felony manslaughter. Regardless, if he's correctly identified, he can be sued out of existence in civil court by the family of the slain man, just like OJ was. And his future job prospects are nil.
There was an obvious overreaction by the Kansas SWAT department: there's no way one member could evaluate a situation and make a decision to fire in six seconds. What if it was a hostage that had been released. What if it had been a wrong address, as has happened in many SWAT responses. So there's definitely some culpability there, but the main blame is with SWAuTistic.
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/12/kansas-man-killed-in-swatting-attack/
ETA: This Ars Technica article has more information. Apparently the CoD game was between "A" and "B", "A" wanted to get "B" SWATted and contacted SWAuTistic for said services. SWAuTistic then goaded "B" in to providing the address. The Wichita Police said that the dead man had spotlights on him and obeyed commands to raise his hands, then he lowered them before raising them again. An officer thought he was reaching for a gun in his waistband.
Let's take a worst possible case. Night time. Man with one or more spotlights shining directly in his face. Has a handgun. Several police officers with (probably) AR-15 rifles, wearing body armor and protective helmets that are safe against handguns unless you're shot in the throat or neck, in positions that the man can't see because he's blinded by the spotlight(s). His chances of hitting an officer are not much above zero. Yes, it's a non-zero chance of him hitting an officer, but it's pretty damn low. There's definitely going to be some scrutiny of Wichita Police practices. It'll be interesting to see what our Pumpkin-In-Chief and the elf in charge of the Justice Dept. have to say about this incident.
Meanwhile, deaths for law enforcement officers dropped significantly, falling to their lowest number since 2013. Law enforcement has never been "the most dangerous job", I believe deep water fishing has held that record for a while. IIRC, it's not in the top 5, though it may be in the top 10.
