| “Get your hands in the air and step out here.”
That’s how Knoxville Tennessee resident Tatyana Smith was greeted by cops armed with assault rifles, all as filmed on her front step by a ring doorbell camera.
“I open the door, thinking somebody’s playing a prank on me,” she told ABC 6. She was being ‘pranked,’ but in a very different kind of way.
Reportedly, somebody had texted the suicide hotline that a 17-year-old at Smith’s address had shot their brother, and were about to shoot themselves. The incident was a textbook “swatting.”
“This is so messed up and those responsible should be held accountable and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” VikingrofValhalla commented on the report.
Swatting, or calling in fake crimes on real people, is an increasingly concerning trend, and the FBI has started to track cases. There is reportedly an open investigation into this incident.
Fortunately nobody was physically hurt this time, but the emotional damage from swatting is real.
“I’m still very traumatized,” Smith said. “Normally when you get swatted, it’s going to continue to happen. So I’m definitely on edge.” Posted By Ghost |
ABR Group