British Swatter charged with 20 years in prison for his doing

The 21-year-old Robert McDaid is the first British person to be charged by police over swatting, the practice of making fake calls to police to implicate other players in serious crimes. He is alleged to have called a terrorism hotline in Maryland back in February of 2015, posing as a US gamer called Tyran Dobbs. The real Tyran Dobbs, at the time, was asleep in his bed.

McDaid claimed that Dobbs was armed with a gun and several bags of explosives, and would kill three hostages unless $15,000 was delivered in a red bag to his address. Police raided Dobbs’ home and shot the 20 year old in the chest and between the eyes with rubber bullets. After realizing their mistake, investigators traced the call to McDaid, who has now been charged in the US with three offenses including conspiracy to produce false information and hoax. He faces a 20 year maximum prison sentence if convicted. McDaid is being charged alongside another US gamer, Zachary Lee, who allegedly contacted McDaid for his help in swatting Dobbs.

Dobbs, meanwhile, questions why the police didn’t listen to his family members, who were trying to warn police that there was no hostage situation. He plans to seek medical damages, and press charges against the officer who shot him in the face. According to the report from ABC-7, police say that Dobbs repeatedly refused to obey officer’s commands, and allegedly had his hand in his shirt, though they have no video evidence of this.

The swatting trend is on the rise. Some other notable instances include when popular Twitch streamer Summit1G was swatted while playing Pokemon GO. Fortunately, he was not injured in the incident.(source: pvplive)