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 incident 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 harassed by a 20-year-old who tried to appropriate his Twitter username , and later sell it.
The unfortunate event occurred on April 27, 2020, but it made the news again in the last hours. This Wednesday the stalker of Herring, identified as Shane Sonderman, was sentenced to five years in prison , after pleading guilty to an act of conspiracy. According to The New York Times, Sonderman disclosed Herring's personal data online to harass him under a maneuver known as swatting.
According to the report, Herring joined the social network in March 2007 as @ Tennessee . The choice of that handle was not random, but a demonstration of affection towards their territory. However, over the years he began to receive – and reject – offers to sell his username . According to one of his daughters, he got to reject 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, according to NYT:
Herring was among at least a half dozen people targeted by Sonderman and his “co-conspirators,” who created fake accounts to find people with catchy usernames on social media, 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 harassment campaign.
A harassment campaign to get a Twitter username
Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash
Swatting is a method of intimidation that involves the inappropriate use of security forces, through false accusations. In cases like this, it has been used to annoy and annoy the people involved until they tire them and get them to give up their username on platforms such as Twitter. Other common practices of stalkers were sending food orders that homeowners had not requested, or making fictitious reports about fires.
In the case of Mark Herring, a person called the authorities posing as him and stating that 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 the officers arrived at the house, they asked Herring to leave with the hands up and climbing 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, caused by a simple Twitter username.
The documentation of the cause indicates that a minor made the call from the United Kingdom. How did you get the Herring data? Sonderman published them on Discord , along with the names and addresses of the victim's relatives.
According to his lawyer, the young stalker showed ” regret and remorse “on multiple occasions. However, it would have continued to carry out swatting maneuvers. This was stated by the prosecutor Joseph C. Murphy Jr., who assured that Sonderman continued to harass people online to appropriate their username from 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 to punish swatting with tougher laws , and to train security forces to identify potentially false reports.
