What began with a seemingly harmless hot take on Twitter turned into a yearslong campaign of harassment, death threats and dozens of ‘swatting’ attacks at Patrick S. Tomlinson’s Milwaukee home. Bevan Hurley reports.
Alan Winston Filion, 17, is suspected of targeting hundreds of high schools, mosques, historically black churches, US Senators and even the Supreme Court with swatting attacks that placed thousands of people in the crosshairs of heavily-armed police response teams.
The FBI, Milwaukee Police Department and the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office in Florida where the teenager is facing four felony counts declined to provide further information, beyond an extensive account of Mr Filion’s activities in a probable cause charging document.
The request to subpoena Cloudflare was denied by the Superior Court of California after a judge ruled it fell under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which shields blogs and social media sites from problematic content on their platforms posted by third parties.
According to a charging document, the Torswats Telegram channel first came onto the law enforcement’s radar in October 2022, when Anacortes High School in Skagit County, Washington was targeted five times in a week with hoax bomb threats and shooting callouts.
In late June, Scott Schubert, the section chief of the FBI Criminal Justice Services Division, gave an interview to NBC News about a new swatting national database that would enable law enforcement to monitor the growing threat.
Mr Filion made his first appearance in court on 31 January and is being charged as an adult on four felony counts including false reporting of a bomb or weapon of mass destruction, and use of a two-way communication device while involved in an act of terrorism.
The original article contains 3,720 words, the summary contains 248 words. Saved 93%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Alan Winston Filion, 17, is suspected of targeting hundreds of high schools, mosques, historically black churches, US Senators and even the Supreme Court with swatting attacks that placed thousands of people in the crosshairs of heavily-armed police response teams.
The FBI, Milwaukee Police Department and the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office in Florida where the teenager is facing four felony counts declined to provide further information, beyond an extensive account of Mr Filion’s activities in a probable cause charging document.
The request to subpoena Cloudflare was denied by the Superior Court of California after a judge ruled it fell under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which shields blogs and social media sites from problematic content on their platforms posted by third parties.
According to a charging document, the Torswats Telegram channel first came onto the law enforcement’s radar in October 2022, when Anacortes High School in Skagit County, Washington was targeted five times in a week with hoax bomb threats and shooting callouts.
In late June, Scott Schubert, the section chief of the FBI Criminal Justice Services Division, gave an interview to NBC News about a new swatting national database that would enable law enforcement to monitor the growing threat.
Mr Filion made his first appearance in court on 31 January and is being charged as an adult on four felony counts including false reporting of a bomb or weapon of mass destruction, and use of a two-way communication device while involved in an act of terrorism.
The original article contains 3,720 words, the summary contains 248 words. Saved 93%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!