A webcam captured the dramatic moment a heavily armed SWAT team barged into a Littleton, Colo., office complex Wednesday morning and arrested an online gamer after a call claimed he was armed and dangerous, New York Daily Mail reported. The call was later deemed to be a hoax, known as "swatting" - where someone, often as revenge for an online slight, be it at video games or on social media, triggers an armed police raid by calling in a fake shooting on their victim.
Jordan Mathewson was streaming a game of "Counter-Strike" when he was suddenly surrounded by dozens of armed officers, demanding him to lie down and be compliant. Earlier in the day, police had been informed by a prank call that Mathewson was a gunman who shot two colleagues and was currently holding more hostages.
The latest case, caught by a camera in the gamer's office, is a worrying trend of "swatting," with police warning yesterday that the trend may one day result in an innocent person being shot dead. "Fortunately there were no injuries today, but a massive law enforcement response wastes resources and greatly increases the chances of innocent people being injured or killed," police said in a statement. "If the investigation determines that today's incident was a hoax, those involved will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
Mathewson, who goes by the username Kootra and has 220,000 Twitter followers, founded an online gaming group known as The Creatures and broadcasts daily on Youtube. According to UK MailOnline, he was midway through one of his streams at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday when he paused, hearing officers bursting into room after room in the office block. "What in the world?" he said. "I think we're getting swatted."
Then, five heavily armed SWAT officers enter the room, cursing and barking at the man to get down, "Put your hands up! Get on the f****** ground! Don't you f****** move, you hear me boy?"
"What's your name?" one officer barks as another tells dispatch they have "one in custody."
"What about this is funny to you?" one officer asks as they bring the handcuffed man up to a standing position and search him.
"What? I'm not doing anything that is funny," the gamer says back.
However, when the game's on-going audio track interrupted them, announcing "Terrorists win," the confused SWAT officers asked the gamer to explain what he had been doing.
"I'm sitting there playing a game, people are watching it, and I guess a joker thought it would be funny to call you guys in," said Mathewson, who then had to show the officers in excruciating detail how to switch the camera off.
A statement by the City of Littleton said police, firefighters and other agencies responded to the call and searched the building thoroughly twice before questioning several employees, UK MailOnline reported. "The caller claimed to have shot two co-workers, held others hostage, and threatened to shoot them. He stated that if the officers entered he would shoot them as well."
"Law enforcement in the South Metro Area and throughout the country are all too familiar with active shooter situations. In the wake of these incidents, Littleton Police and other law enforcement agencies train for rapid response to quickly rescue victims and neutralize the situation."
In April, police warned swatting was becoming a national epidemic after an army of officers stormed a Long Island home under the belief a teen had shot dead his mother and brother and was ready to kill again.
Within minutes of arriving, they discovered the hostage call was an act of revenge by a disgruntled "Call of Duty" gamer who'd just been defeated.
