A man died in the United States after suffering a heart attack during a police operation at his home, caused by a false homicide report. The event occurred specifically in Bethpage, Tennessee, and was the consequence of a twisted plot and ridiculous borders. The victim in this story was Mark Herring, 60, who was bullied by a 20-year-old who intended to steal your Twitter username, to later sell it.
The unfortunate event occurred on April 27, 2020, but it made the news again in the last hours. This Wednesday Herring’s stalker, identified as Shane Sonderman, he was sentenced to five years in prison, after pleading guilty to an act of conspiracy. As published The New York Times, Sonderman disclosed Herring’s personal data online to harass him under a ploy known as swatting.
According to the report, Herring joined the social network in March 2007 as @Tennessee. The choice of that handle It was not random, but a show of affection for their territory. However, as the years go by started receiving – and rejecting – offers to sell his username. According to one of his daughters, he even rejected proposals of between 3,000 and 4 thousand dollars. This is how this shocking case of harassment began, which transcended the borders of Twitter.
This is how the paths of Herring and Sonderman crossed, as he explains NYT:
Herring was among at least a half dozen people targeted by Sonderman and his “co-conspirators,” who created fake accounts on services to find social media users with catchy usernames, prosecutors said. Sonderman and his accomplices contacted the owners and asked them to hand them over so they could sell them.
If they refused, […] They were bombarded with repeated phone calls and text messages in a campaign of harassment.
A harassment campaign to get a Twitter username
Specifically, the swatting consists in annoy and make the people involved uncomfortable until they are tired and get them to give their username on platforms such as Twitter. Some common practices of stalkers were sending food orders that homeowners had not requested, or making false reports about fires.
In Mark Herring’s case it was much worse. One person called the authorities posing as him and stating that he had shot a woman in the head. But that was not all. He also threatened to detonate bombs that were allegedly located at the entrance gates to the property if the police tried to enter.
When officers arrived at the home, they asked Herring to come out with his hands up and climb a cattle gate located at the entrance. The man offered to open the gate, but authorities refused. As it was too high, he tried to cross it underneath, but when he rejoined he collapsed after suffering a heart attack. A harassment campaign with a fatal outcome, all triggered by a Twitter username.
The documentation of the case indicates that a minor made the call from the United Kingdom. How did you get the Herring data? Sonderman publics them on Discord, along with the names and addresses of the victim’s next of kin.
According to his lawyer, the young stalker showed “regret and remorse” on multiple occasions. However, he would have continued to carry out maneuvers swatting. This was stated by the prosecutor Joseph C. Murphy Jr., who assured that Sonderman continued to harass people online to appropriate their username for Twitter and other social networks, even after pleading guilty in this case.
Sonderman’s behavior would have been influenced by a history of “severe mental illness” in his family, according to his defender. Meanwhile, Mark Herring’s family asked the authorities let him be punished swatting with tougher laws, and that security forces be trained to identify potentially false reports.