LOS ANGELES (KTLA) — A man from Wisconsin pleaded guilty on Thursday to reporting false emergencies to police in places like West Covina and Oxnard, then taunting officers using residences’ Ring cameras.
Racine resident Kya Christian Nelson, 23, admitted to one count of conspiracy and two counts of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release.
From Nov. 7 to 13, 2020, Nelson went on a “swatting” spree where he’d falsely report dangerous situations at residences across the country, then livestream the ensuing police raids on social media, “sometimes while taunting responding police officers in communities such as West Covina and Oxnard,” the DOJ said.
Those officers had often just cleared a home’s residents at gunpoint, as the reports they received often indicated that children were in danger from adults armed with guns.
“The defendant’s malicious actions traumatized his victims and put their lives – and the lives of responding officers – at risk,” said Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI Los Angeles Field Office, in the DOJ release. “Swatting hoaxes drain crucial law enforcement resources at the expense of taxpayers and diverts police officers from responding to actual crisis situations. This case is a good reminder for security doorbell users that it’s important to practice strict cyber hygiene by using difficult passwords and by employing two-factor authentication.”
Nelson, who has been in Kentucky state prison since August after a conviction on an unrelated case, faces up to five years in federal prison for each count when he’s sentenced on May 1.
One of Nelson’s co-conspirators, Arizona resident James Thomas Andrew McCarty, 22, was sentenced in June to seven years in federal prison.
