Bremerton Swatter Ashton Connor Garcia Jailed 3 Years for Extensive Harassment Campaign

A 21-year-old Bremerton, Washington, man was sentenced to three years in prison for his extensive swatting campaign that targeted victims in the US and Canada.

Tacoma – Ashton Connor Garcia, 21, pleaded guilty in January 2024 to two counts of extortion and two counts of threats and hoaxes regarding explosives. U.S. District Judge Benjamin H. Settle slammed Garcia’s actions, saying, “Swatting is cruel. It is uncivilized. It is the willful terrorizing of other human beings.”

“This conduct is not only outrageous, it is dangerous for the victims, for first responders and for members of the public who may need emergency response but cannot get it because resources are tied up at a false report,” said U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman. “I hope this prosecution and sentence is a wake-up call for those who think swatting is fun or entertaining. It is a federal crime with potentially fatal consequences.”

According to the plea agreement and records in the case, from early June 2022 through March 2023, Garcia used voice over internet technology and social media platforms to make false emergency calls to dispatch services while urging others to watch his illegal activity via social media. In his plea agreement, Garcia admits he intended his calls to cause a large-scale deployment of special weapons and tactics (SWAT) teams, bomb squads, and other police units to the targeted locations.

Garcia’s plea agreement details 20 different false emergency reports targeting victims in California, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Washington, and Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Garcia gathered personal information about his victims, and then threatened some of his victims with harm, including placing swatting calls to send an armed police presence to their home. Garcia demanded money, virtual currency, credit card information, or sexually explicit photos from some of the people he threatened.

Garcia’s swatting calls frequently used the same scripts, claiming that his father was holding him hostage, or that he had shot his parents, or that his father had raped female members of the family. The false reports tied up law enforcement resources that could have been used for actual emergencies, with officers entering victim residences with guns drawn and detaining people at the scene.

In asking for a four-year prison sentence, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Manca described some of the people harmed by Garcia’s crimes. In her sentencing memo, she wrote, “In Edmonton, Alberta, an 8-year-old boy and his mother were woken up in the night by a team of law enforcement officers with rifles. 20 officers and 7 civilian staff members were directly involved in that law enforcement response. In New Jersey, a man was removed from his house and detained at gunpoint, and an elementary school was locked down on the first day of school. Over 19 officers responded to the area, along with several officers from a neighboring police agency.”

U.S. Attorney Gorman added, “I hope this prosecution and sentence is a wake-up call for those who think swatting is fun or entertaining. It is a federal crime with potentially fatal consequences.”