A Wisconsin man acknowledged planning a startling nationwide swatting campaign in which he taunted victims with hacked Ring cameras.#Madison, Wisconsin, #News, #Crime
Madison, Wisconsin 23 years oldA Wisconsin man has acknowledged using hacked Ring home security cameras to broadcast law enforcement’s armed responses on social media during a terrifying swatting spree that spanned the country. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California announced the guilty plea, exposing the complex and hazardous hoax that put officers and citizens in danger.
Conceding to his role in the week-long operation was Kya Christian Nelson, who was already serving a state prison sentence in Kentucky for a different offense. He entered a guilty plea to two counts of illegally accessing a protected computer to obtain information and one count of conspiracy. Since August 2024, Nelson has been under federal detention.
The Dangerous Reality of Swatting
Making fictitious emergency calls in order to trigger an armed police response—often involving SWAT teams—is known as “swatting.” Prosecutors characterized the plan as heedless and malevolent, putting innocent people in danger.
Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph T. McNally stated in a statement that swatting endangers the lives of innocent people.
The guilty plea entered today shows that federal prosecutions will hold those involved in this risky behavior accountable.
A Trail of Hoaxes and Hacked Cameras
Nelson and his associates meticulously carried out their strategy between November 7 and November 13, 2020. The plea deal states that Nelson gained unauthorized access to Yahoo! email accounts and then used credentials that were obtained to take control of Ring cameras connected to those accounts.
The conspirators used this access to bring law enforcement to the homes of innocent victims through a series of fictitious emergency calls. In addition to livestreaming the reactions, they made fun of and intimidated victims and officers using the Ring devices.
Nelson and a co-conspirator pretended to be children when they called the West Covina Police Department on November 8, 2020, to report threatening activities at a home. According to the made-up account, the child’s parents were shooting and drinking. When police reached the house, they dragged the occupants outside while brandishing their weapons. Nelson used the hacked Ring doorbell camera to taunt authorities during the pandemonium.
On November 11, 2020, Nelson and his accomplice submitted another false report, this time to the Oxnard Police Department, in a similar occurrence. They claimed to be children and claimed that there was gun violence in the house. When officers arrived and took the occupants away at gunpoint, they found out that the whole thing was a hoax. Nelson intimidated cops once more using the compromised Ring camera.
The Fallout of Swatting
Assistant Director of the FBI Los Angeles, Akil Davis, denounced the acts and emphasized the dangers.
According to Davis, the defendant’s heinous acts traumatized his victims and endangered both their lives and the lives of the responding police.
Swatting hoaxes delay officers from responding to real crisis situations and waste valuable law enforcement resources at taxpayer expense.
In order to avoid such intrusions, Davis advised users of security systems such as Ring to secure their devices using two-factor authentication and strong passwords.
Sentencing and Co-Conspirators
Nelson will be sentenced on May 1. Each of the three offenses carries a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison.
In June 2024, James Thomas Andrew McCarty, 22, of Arizona, one of his co-conspirators, received a sentence of seven years in federal prison. Among McCarty’s offenses was a swatting episode in Florida in which he made a false pretense of being a guy who had set up the house with explosives, killed his wife, and was holding a hostage. Similar to Nelson, McCarty streamed the police response live using a Ring camera that had been compromised.
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