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Kansas Swatting Perpetrator 'SWauTistic' Interviewed on Twitter (krebsonsecurity.com)
"That kids house that I swatted is on the news," tweeted "SWauTistic" -- before he realized he'd gotten somebody killed. Security researcher Brian Krebs reveals what happened next.
When it became apparent that a man had been killed as a result of the swatting, Swautistic tweeted that he didn't get anyone killed because he didn't pull the trigger. Swautistic soon changed his Twitter handle to @GoredTutor36, but KrebsOnSecurity managed to obtain several weeks' worth of tweets from Swautistic before his account was renamed. Those tweets indicate that Swautistic is a serial swatter -- meaning he has claimed responsibility for a number of other recent false reports to the police. Among the recent hoaxes he's taken credit for include a false report of a bomb threat at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that disrupted a high-profile public meeting on the net neutrality debate. Swautistic also has claimed responsibility for a hoax bomb threat that forced the evacuation of the Dallas Convention Center, and another bomb threat at a high school in Panama City, Fla, among others.
After tweeting about the incident extensively Friday afternoon, KrebsOnSecurity was contacted by someone in control of the @GoredTutor36 Twitter account. GoredTutor36 said he's been the victim of swatting attempts himself, and that this was the reason he decided to start swatting others. He said the thrill of it "comes from having to hide from police via net connections." Asked about the FCC incident, @GoredTutor36 acknowledged it was his bomb threat. "Yep. Raped em," he wrote. "Bomb threats are more fun and cooler than swats in my opinion and I should have just stuck to that," he wrote. "But I began making $ doing some swat requests."
Krebs' article also links to a police briefing with playback from the 911 call. "There is no question that police officers and first responders across the country need a great deal more training to bring the number of police shootings way down..." Krebs argues. "Also, all police officers and dispatchers need to be trained on what swatting is, how to spot the signs of a hoax, and how to minimize the risk of anyone getting harmed when responding to reports about hostage situations or bomb threats."
But he also argues that filing a false police report should be reclassified as a felony in all states.
After tweeting about the incident extensively Friday afternoon, KrebsOnSecurity was contacted by someone in control of the @GoredTutor36 Twitter account. GoredTutor36 said he's been the victim of swatting attempts himself, and that this was the reason he decided to start swatting others. He said the thrill of it "comes from having to hide from police via net connections." Asked about the FCC incident, @GoredTutor36 acknowledged it was his bomb threat. "Yep. Raped em," he wrote. "Bomb threats are more fun and cooler than swats in my opinion and I should have just stuck to that," he wrote. "But I began making $ doing some swat requests."
Krebs' article also links to a police briefing with playback from the 911 call. "There is no question that police officers and first responders across the country need a great deal more training to bring the number of police shootings way down..." Krebs argues. "Also, all police officers and dispatchers need to be trained on what swatting is, how to spot the signs of a hoax, and how to minimize the risk of anyone getting harmed when responding to reports about hostage situations or bomb threats."
But he also argues that filing a false police report should be reclassified as a felony in all states.
I don't like advertising this guys channel but as its relevant here is an interview a youtuber called Keemstar did with SWauTistic hours before he was arrested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Ah yes, the "police officers have a dangerous job" excuse. You do realize that statistically speaking being a police officer doesn't even make the top 10 dangerous jobs in terms of risk to life and limb right? Garbage man, logger, farmer & fisherman are but a few of the professions that beat law enforcement when it comes to danger. I doubt very much that any people in those professions would get a pass if they killed an innocent person in a brash moment of stupidity. No one is saying that police don't have a difficult job, but that's no excuse for killing innocent people, beating suspects, planting evidence, threatening citizens and lying in court. Police officers who conduct themselves with honor and integrity deserve our respect and praise, those who commit the previously mentioned transgressions deserve to be tossed in to jail with the rest of the criminals.
The felony murder rule is:
When a person commits a felony, and as a result someone dies, it's murder.
A classic example would be a robbery. John and Rob plan to rob a convenience store. Rob shots the clerk. John claims "I didn't mean for anyone to get shot - I was just doing an armed robbery". John is guilty of felony murder because a) he was committing a felony and b) it resulted in death. There is a presumption that you know felonies are dangerous, and that you shouldn't commit felonies. So although John didn't WANT someone to die, he was criminally reckless by committing armed robbery, which he knew *could* result in death.
Another, perhaps more interesting example:
John and Rob plan an armed robbery of a convenience store. When they pull out their guns, an armed civilian behind them shots Rob, who later dies. John is once again guilty of felony murder. He didn't plan for Rob to die, but he did know that committing armed robbery could get someone killed.
The caller pretended to be the killer/hostage-taker. He also stated he'd doused the house in gasoline, which added a time-critical element to the situation (gasoline fumes can ignite on contact with many mundane heat/electric sources).
Basically the caller fed the 911 operator exactly the information needed to cause the police to abandon caution, and thus maximize the chances of the police killing someone. This was a social hack of the 911 and police response system.
The one part of the story I'm unclear on is that 911 operators are supposed to see the phone's address (landline) or location (mobile) when they receive a call. If those didn't match the address the caller claimed this was all happening at, that should've been a red flag. I'm assuming the caller figured out a work-around to spoof his location in the 911 system. (Actually, based on the sign-up procedure for my VoIP phone numbers, I think I know how this could be done.)
That includes gunfire, so surely that's another reason why the responding police should have been cautioned about not being so trigger happy before they arrived on the scene? Potentially, you're either close enough to know for sure that you won't miss which increases the chance the gun discharging would ignite any fumes directly, or far enough back that you might miss and have a ricochet do it.
I think the real takeaway here is that are multiple procedural and training failures on the side of law enforcement that need to be kept in the spotlight, rather than allowing it to focus entirely on the actions of the two gamers. A tragic mistake has already happened and that can't be changed, but there's no reason to compound that by failing to learn from it.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
Well, score another one for police — why was not the fake caller prosecuted after his very first crime?
Score two for the police. In virtually no other modern western country would the cops have immediately shot a person for just opening the front door. Competent police would seek to contain the situation until they worked out what was going on, get a negotiator, trained snipers etc. Of course the guy in the door was black so never let a chance go by.
The "kid" is a 25 year old man-child.
The solution is for the cops to calm the heck down. Violent crime is at an all time low but the cops keep becoming more and more violent. We aren't In a warzone. Police shot and killed per year is at it's lowest since the early 1900s despite the obvious population increase. Far more die of heart attacks on duty. Maybe lay off the donuts AND the assault rifles.
Well, score another one for police — why was not the fake caller prosecuted after his very first crime?
Score two for the police. In virtually no other modern western country would the cops have immediately shot a person for just opening the front door. Competent police would seek to contain the situation until they worked out what was going on, get a negotiator, trained snipers etc. Of course the guy in the door was black so never let a chance go by.
Uh...no, the guy wasn't black. His name was Andrew Finch, and he was pasty white.
Which is also why there are no SJWs screaming that this was a racially motivated killing. But they should, just to reinforce how ridiculous those kind of claims are.
That's because it is. In fact, to quote the US government's own National Institute of Justice, and confirmed by a fair bit of research, "The certainty of being caught is a vastly more powerful deterrent than the punishment." It's not the severity of the penalty, but the likelihood of it occurring.
I don't trust atoms -- they make up stuff.