A 20-year-old Virginia man has been sentenced to almost 3 years in jail for his involvement in a number of swatting incidents.
According to a press release from the Department of Justice, John William Kirby Kelley conspired with John Cameron Denton, a former chief of the Neo-Nazi Atomwaffen Division, to perform no less than 134 “swatting” calls. He has been sentenced to 33 months in jail.
Kelley carried out “swats” on journalists, a former U.S. (*33*) member, the Virginia college he as soon as attended, a historic Virginia church and an Islamic Center in Arlington, Texas, in accordance to the DOJ.
Swatting is a type of harassment by which somebody deceives emergency personnel into believing an individual is in rapid hazard of dying or bodily hurt, inflicting police and emergency providers to be despatched to a 3rd celebration’s handle.
“The FBI and our law enforcement partners take all threats seriously and investigate instances of swatting. Law enforcement and first responders put their lives at risk every day, and swatting instances which increase that risk will not be tolerated,” FBI Special Agent James Dawson said.
According to the DOJ, Kelley managed an online chatroom where fellow conspirators chose targets and coordinated swatting calls. Many of the people he worked with were white supremacists and targeted people based on “racial animus.”
Kelley, who had attended Old Dominion University, requested conspirators to “swat” his faculty, which they did on Nov. 29 and Dec. 4, 2018.
“Swatting attacks are serious crimes that disrupt the operations of local emergency agencies, take first responders away from real emergencies, and place victims, community members, and law enforcement officers in grave danger,” Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA) Raj Parekh stated within the launch.
“EDVA will proceed to deliver to justice those that threaten public security with these menacing hoaxes, particularly when these threats are motivated by racial or non secular animus, that are insupportable and don’t have any place in our society,” Parekh added.
