He refused to give up his coveted Twitter handle. Then he was ‘swatted’ and died of a heart attack. [Timothy Bella at The Washington Post]
Shane Sonderman was sentenced to five years in prison after mounting harassment campaigns against multiple people to try to steal their social media handles, causing the death of one of his victims.
Sonderman was convicted for the death of Mark Herring, 60, who owned the @tennessee handle on Twitter.
Sonderman “swatted” Herring—called the local police in Tennessee from Sonderman‘s location in the UK, and claimed there was a murder going on in at Herring’s home, and that Herring was dangerous.
Authorities were called to the Sumner County address in April 2020 in response to a report that a woman had been fatally shot and pipe bombs would go off if officers arrived, according to court records….
Emergency responders were dispatched, and when they arrived at Herring’s home, guns drawn, they called for Herring to walk toward them, keeping his hands visible. As he did so, Herring appeared to lose his balance and fell to the ground, unresponsive,” prosecutors wrote. “Mr. Herring died of a heart attack at gunpoint.”
Corinna Fitch, Herring’s eldest daughter, told The Washington Post “she and her family are angry over a sentence that she described as ‘a slap on the wrist.’” She’s right.
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