A California teenager was sentenced to four years in prison on Tuesday for his role in numerous swatting calls, per Huff Post.
Alan W. Filion, 18, was found guilty of making 375 swatting calls. Filion targeted a mosque in Florida, among other places and individuals, as stated by federal prosecutors.
He pleaded guilty in November to four counts of making interstate threats to harm others. Swatting involves making a false emergency call to provoke a significant police response at a specific location as a
“prank.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office reported that Filion made threatening calls from August 2022 to January 2024.
These calls included claims of having planted bombs at various locations and threats to detonate them or carry out mass shootings, prosecutors stated. His targets included religious institutions, high schools, colleges and universities, government officials, and individuals across the country. At the time he made most of these calls, Filion was just 16 years old.
As part of a plea deal, he acknowledged making a threatening call in October 2022 to a public high school in Washington state. He had threatened a mass shooting and claimed to have planted bombs across the campus. He also pleaded guilty to a call made in May 2023 to a historically black college and university in Florida.
#Clique, what are your thoughts
