SWAT Raids Yet Another Livestreaming Counter-Strike Player

[Fanghawk]

SWAT Raids Yet Another Livestreaming Counter-Strike Player

Police SWAT teams captured another Counter-Strike player in a swatting hoax, only this call disrupted an entire office park.

With video game livestreaming becoming more and more popular, so too sadly, does the tendency to prank streamers. That's why <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/136068-SWAT-Raids-Counter-Strike-Player-Live-on-Twitch>barely a month after a police SWAT team was called in for a Counter-Strike player, someone decided to get their jollies by pulling an identical "joke" on Kootra from streaming group The Creatures. Unlike the previous story however, Kootra's camera was left running for the entire unnecessary takedown, showing just how scary swatting calls can be.

In response to a 911 distress call, Littleton, Colorado's police force rushed a SWAT unit into an office complex where shots were reported to be fired. "The caller stated that he had just shot multiple people," said Littleton police chief Doug Stephens. The SWAT response also prompted security precautions like clearly surrounding offices and putting nearby schools on alert.

Of course, no real-world shooting had ever occurred. Instead, the gaming group The Creatures were using the space to stream their <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/counter-strike?from_search=1>Counter-Strike session. In the video, Kootra even hears the police sweeping the facility, and rightly states that he's about to be swatted.

Police detained a few of the players, who were cooperative with the investigation. Naturally, no arrests were made. "There's a somewhat, not really common, prank that happens," said Daniel Gidlow, a member of The Creatures. "While we're live streaming to thousands of people, somebody calls the cops."

While no one was hurt, police are attempting to use federal resources to track and prosecute whoever made the hoax call in the first place. While some may consider that excessive, note that <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/133961-Call-of-Duty-Loser-Sends-SWAT-Team-To-Victors-House>this is already the third swatting case we've reported on this year, and it can have actual consequences for real people. It wastes tax dollars and public resources that are reserved for real emergencies, and that's not even getting into the disaster this could have become.

"This is not an online game," Stephens said. "We have real guns, real bullets and there is a potential there for some tragedy."

Source: FOX 31

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[toms]

I hope they find those responsible and come down on them hard.
It is time people learned that the Internet can be a very serious business indeed and true anonymity is an illusion.

 

[Sight Unseen]

Seriously? Why would someone think this is a good idea for a practical joke or a troll?

 

[tdylan]

Forgive me, my knowledge of SWAT tactics comes solely from Hollywood movies. That said, how is barging into an unknown situation "option A?" What I'm saying is, these SWAT teams obviously don't know what they're getting into, because if they did, they would know it was a hoax, and not barge in to begin with. So they clearly don't know what's happening on the other side of the door. Let's assume that there is a legit threat on the other side. Shouldn't they investigate it before barging in? You know, to make sure the door isn't booby trapped with a homemade pipebomb, or something? I don't fault them responding to the call, but do they even bother to investigate the room that they are breaching before doing so? And if so, do they say something like:

"single target. sitting at some kind of console. probably controlling some UAV about to strike on a civilian population. We've gotta breach, NOW!"

If there were hostages previously not known about, wouldn't it be prudent to figure that out before barging in, startling the hostage taker, and potentially causing lives to be lost? If this "kick down the door before investigating what's on the other side" based on nothing more than a phone call is their go to tactic, I'm surprised we don't hear about innocent people getting shot to death more often by a SWAT team barging in on them while they were cooking, and being killed because "he's got a knife!"

 

[CriticalMiss]

Hopefully they find the idiot(s) who think it's funny, throw them in jail for a while and give them a bill to cover the whole thing. It's really not funny given how many people get killed or injured in bullshit police raids in the states (read: more than 0) and I'd imagine the people doing it wouldn't much enjoy being the recipients of such a raid themselves.

 

[Sanunes]

I have come to terms that there are a lot of people that are having a really hard time being able to differentiate between "game world" and reality. I overheard a couple of teenagers on public transit talking about the bomb threat on the CEO of Sony's plane and they actually considering it a good thing for "they should make them suffer for their horrible service". Both of these horrible acts need to be investigated and people need to be brought to court over it, but by the time that happens it might be too late for any real lasting impression that "this is a dumb move".

 

[Dying_Jester]

Congratulations to him for staying calm during the entire fiasco. I won't lie, when the big bald guy with his foot on the players back looked at the camera you just knew he was thinking "Shit, this is being recorded".
I really do hope that people who call in these false calls get caught because this is just stupid.

 

[Avaholic03]

Well that's crazy. I used to live a few blocks away from where that happened.

OT: what pathetic loser thinks this is funny? Seems like SWAT should make more effort to find out who is calling in these hoaxes, and crack down on it hard.

 

[cikame]

There is nothing funny about sending real guys with real guns at innocent people, don't waste their time, don't risk a tragedy, don't be an idiot.

 

[senordesol]

Forgive me, my knowledge of SWAT tactics comes solely from Hollywood movies. That said, how is barging into an unknown situation "option A?" What I'm saying is, these SWAT teams obviously don't know what they're getting into, because if they did, they would know it was a hoax, and not barge in to begin with. So they clearly don't know what's happening on the other side of the door. Let's assume that there is a legit threat on the other side. Shouldn't they investigate it before barging in? You know, to make sure the door isn't booby trapped with a homemade pipebomb, or something? I don't fault them responding to the call, but do they even bother to investigate the room that they are breaching before doing so? And if so, do they say something like:

"single target. sitting at some kind of console. probably controlling some UAV about to strike on a civilian population. We've gotta breach, NOW!"

If there were hostages previously not known about, wouldn't it be prudent to figure that out before barging in, startling the hostage taker, and potentially causing lives to be lost? If this "kick down the door before investigating what's on the other side" based on nothing more than a phone call is their go to tactic, I'm surprised we don't hear about innocent people getting shot to death more often by a SWAT team barging in on them while they were cooking, and being killed because "he's got a knife!"

I'm no Law Enforcement professional myself, but part of the call was 'he's shot several people'. I think when that's the case, SWAT goes in for instant take-down.

 

[FalloutJack]

Open message to FPS gamers of the world:

"DON'T DO DAT SHIT!!"

Thank you.

(Seriously, this is dumb and should never happen.)

 

[Jupiter065]

I wonder if maybe stuff like this shouldn't be reported on as widely as it is, since it obviously seemed to have fueled at least this copycat.

 

[Johnson McGee]

The prank was stupid of course, but the fault lies squarely with the police force for failing to properly assess the situation and respond appropriately.

Now, of course they should respond to a shooting call, but in a real call there is rarely only one report. Everyone within earshot should have been phoning 911 to report gunshots, especially in an office setting. Having only one call should have been a flag from the start that this may be a hoax. Secondly, if they were responding to a report of an active shooter, why are they handcuffing, frisking and interrogating random people sitting at computers? Lastly, if the caller described themselves as being an eyewitness and was one of the people watching the stream, why did the police go there rather than to the location indicated by the caller's phone?

And on top of that: levelling automatic weapons at unarmed civilians (wearing headphones, so possibly completely unaware of the situation), hiding their activities from the camera's oversight, having three officers interrogating this guy as opposed to continuing to sweep for their 'shooter'. Just unprofessional and irresponsible.

TLR Pranker was dumb, but the police are the ones with the duty respond appropriately.

 

[Jandau]

The sad part here is, whoever called the cops was likely furiously masturbating to the footage of the streamer being manhandled by the SWAT. Seriously, this was probably the Jackpot of his sad, pathetic life, enjoying the fact that Kootra left his cam on. Also, this is probably the same kind of person who, if confronted about what a fucked up thing he's done, would respond with something like "U mad bro?".

On the other hand, I can't really fault SWAT here. They did their job, they didn't harm Kootra and went about their work in an orderly fashion. Yes, it's fucked up that this happened, but what were they supposed to do? Say "fuck it, might be a prank, let's watch some reruns of The Wire"?

And if you really want to despair about the state of humanity, just read the Youtube comments for the video. Roughly 45% think the whole thing is hillarious, 45% are raging at the cops for doing their job and maybe 10% are being reasonable human beings.

 

[RJ Dalton]

Doesn't seem excessive for them to prosecute the prankers to me. I mean, for starters, deploying the SWAT costs taxpayer dollars. Secondly, if a SWAT team is deployed on a fake mission, what happens if, during that time, a real emergency that needs SWAT teams happens and their resources are stretched because of it? Thirdly, as they said in the article, this could have gone really badly. So, yeah, prosecute the dipshits who made the prank call. They deserve it.

 

[Riotguards]

The prank was stupid of course, but the fault lies squarely with the police force for failing to properly assess the situation and respond appropriately.

Now, of course they should respond to a shooting call, but in a real call there is rarely only one report. Everyone within earshot should have been phoning 911 to report gunshots, especially in an office setting. Having only one call should have been a flag from the start that this may be a hoax. Secondly, if they were responding to a report of an active shooter, why are they handcuffing, frisking and interrogating random people sitting at computers? Lastly, if the caller described themselves as being an eyewitness and was one of the people watching the stream, why did the police go there rather than to the location indicated by the caller's phone?

And on top of that: levelling automatic weapons at unarmed civilians (wearing headphones, so possibly completely unaware of the situation), hiding their activities from the camera's oversight, having three officers interrogating this guy as opposed to continuing to sweep for their 'shooter'. Just unprofessional and irresponsible.

TLR Pranker was dumb, but the police are the ones with the duty respond appropriately.

yes i agree, the police responding to a possible sandy hooks should assess the risk and make sure that its not a prank phone call

by the way you assume an innocent looking person is innocent, i guess children have never killed people or anyone else for that matter that just looks or acts friendly (yet have murdered people, etc, etc)

gosh darn those police take far too many precautions, why can't they politely knock on the door and ask the bad guy to give his gun up, asking nicely you know because manners matter

 

[Neverhoodian]

While no one was hurt, police are attempting to use federal resources to track and prosecute whoever made the hoax call in the first place. While some may consider that excessive...

"Excessive?" Hell no! Throw those dipshits in the slammer and throw away the key, I say.

To all the people badmouthing the police, here's some food for thought: if a neighbor of yours had just shot a bunch of people, would you want law enforcement to take their sweet time determining if the emergency call they got was in fact an emergency?

That's the thing about stuff like this. Police can't afford to doubt the validity of a single one, at least not right away. They have to act in case it really is a lunatic on a shooting spree, as I can guarantee the public outcry for ignoring something like that would be FAR worse than potentially overreacting to a prank call.

 

[Zontar]

And nobody was killed again. Must have been because everyone all the livestreamers were white, eh?

There are no words.