Juvenile Involved in Southern Utah Swatting Incident Connected to Serial Swatting Organization
A juvenile has been arrested in connection with a series of swatting incidents including a case in St. George involving Snow Canyon High School.
As a quick reminder, swatting is the act of instigating a fake threat to direct a large police presence to a single location. Sometimes it’s done for nefarious purposes, but it’s mostly done just to cause inconvenience for the local authorities.
Public Information Officer Tiffany Mitchell from the St. George Police Department provided a summary of the incident in question.
Officer Mitchell said, “The catalyst started when on September 27 [2023] Snow Canyon High School got a swatting call saying that someone was going to come shoot up the school. As we always do, we had a large-scale response by us, and a lot of other agencies within the county responded there to find out that this was a hoax based on the evidence we were able to gather.”
Since that day, local investigators have been working to pin down the location of this so-called serial swatter. After about three months of searching, a juvenile located outside the state of Utah was arrested for the reported swatting crime.
Officer Mitchell said this suspect is a part of a serial swatting ring that seeks to cause disturbances across the country, and that this juvenile’s rap sheet is extensive.
Officer Mitchell said, “Our suspect in this case was linked to an organized group which has engaged in serial swatting across the country. So, how many other states were affected? I don’t know the answer to that, but he’s definitely done this before and hopefully won’t do it again. We’re in line to charge him along with other states in the United States.”
Due to the suspect being a minor, the identity of the juvenile is being kept under wraps, and Officer Mitchell said the trial process is going to be extensive and time-consuming.
We’ll provide updates as more information comes to light regarding this serial swatting ring.