TACOMA, Wash. — On Tuesday, a U.S. District Judge sentenced a Bremerton man to 3-years in prison for four felony counts of swatting.
20-year-old Ashton Connor Garcia was charged with two counts of extortion and two counts of threats and hoaxes regarding explosives in 2022.
“Swatting is cruel. It is uncivilized. It is the willful terrorizing of other human beings,” U.S. District Judge Benjamin H. Settle said.
The plea agreement described Garcia using voice-over-internet technology and social media to make false emergency calls and going live for others to watch the response.
Garcia made 20 different false emergency reports of varying false claims across multiple states and Canada and threatened to extort the victims, the agreement detailed.
“This conduct is not only outrageous, it is dangerous for the victims, for first responders and for members of the public who may need emergency response but cannot get it because resources are tied up at a false report,” Tessa M. Gorman, U.S. Attorney said. “I hope this prosecution and sentence is a wake-up call for those who think swatting is fun or entertaining. It is a federal crime with potentially fatal consequences.”
Garcia has been detained at the Federal Detention Center at SeaTac since he violated the terms of his pretrial release last year.
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