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Video Gamer Swatted

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Colorado 'Swatting' Incident Caught on Camera

GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo. - The gamer who was livestreaming when SWAT officers burst into his office in Littleton Wednesday says he knew "almost right away" that it was a prank, but it was a frightening experience nevertheless.

Someone used a landline to report an active shooter at West Mineral Avenue and Broadway, the Littleton Police Department stated Wednesday afternoon.

A 6-minute video posted on YouTube clearly shows the SWAT team ordering the man to the ground at gunpoint and searching the office.

The man in the video is Jordan Mathewson, who uses the online moniker "Kootra." Kootra is well known in the online gaming community - with more than 220,000 followers on Twitter and 700,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel. He is part of The Creatures, a group that makes tutorial videos and funny videos about video games.

As the video starts, Mathewson is looking over his shoulder at the office door.

"Uh oh, this isn't good," he said on the video. "They're clearing rooms. What in the world? I think we're getting swatted."

"I knew almost right away what exactly was happening," he said. "But I was still frightened you know, having some guns pointed at you isn't exactly the most common thing."

"We hadn't experienced [swatting] but we knew of people who had experienced it in the past," Mathewson said. "It's become an alarming new trend."

"Swatting" refers to a prank phone call that causes a SWAT team to respond. The intention is presumably to interrupt a business or cause other problems.

In the video, Mathewson appears to be smiling, and an officer asks "What about this is funny to you?"

"I've heard people say that I appear to be amused, but I really didn't have any control over myself at the time," Mathewson told ABC News after the incident. "I was just terrified and I really don't know what was going through my head."

Mathewson said people have pranked them in the past by ordering pizzas in their name or having taxis sent to their homes, but said he didn't have any idea who called the SWAT team.

"I don't know what would drive somebody to do something like that, other than the fact that they get to kinda see the outcome live on the stream," he said. "They get to see all this go down right before their eyes and, you know, it's fun to them."

During the SWAT operation, Littleton Public Schools placed several schools on secure perimeter, lockdown and/or lock-in.

Photos from the scene showed employees in the building being evacuated in small groups, some with their hands raised.

"If the investigation determines that today’s incident was a hoax, those involved will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," police said in a statement Wednesday.

7NEWS sources say Littleton police did bring someone in for questioning in connection to the incident, but that person was released, pending a further investigation.
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Video (Good Morning America)

Video (Channel 7, Denver)

Camera Crew:  Dominic Frederico and Shannon Reed
Producer:  Matthew Mosk
Air Date:  27 August 2014

7 News screen shot of our GMA segment...

7 News screen shot of our GMA segment...

Aspen Security Forum | July 23-24, 2014

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ABC News’ Brian Ross Thanks US Officials 32 Years After Hostage Crisis

ABC News Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross today gave a public, yet personal thanks to two U.S. officials who were involved ina dramatic incident more than three decades ago in which Ross and dozens of others were held captive aboard a hijacked airline in Central America.

“On a point of personal privilege, let me just say that my first experience with counter-terrorism took place 32 years ago when I was held hostage by terrorists in Honduras for three days on a flight in Tegucigalpa,” Ross said today during the introduction to a counter-terrorism discussion at the Aspen Security Forum. “[Panelist] Mike [Vickers] was the Special Forces operator who came here to save me and John Negroponte, who’s here in the audience, was the ambassador at the time. I never had a chance to thank you publicly, but I wanted to say it publicly to both of you.”

As a secret commando at the time, Vickers’ role was unknown to Ross until today when Ross said Vickers brought up the decades-old incident just before the panel discussion began. Vickers had been on hand to plan a military rescue, should it have come to that. “He was just another selfless American hero like so many who never get credit for all they do,” Ross said after the panel.

ht brian ross FRAME file kb 140724 16x9 608 ABC News Brian Ross Thanks US Officials 32 Years After Hostage Crisis

(ABC News, inset UPI)

Ross, then a correspondent for NBC News, was aboard a domestic flight in late April 1982 when the plane was stormed by four armed men who identified themselves as from the leftist group Lorenzo Zelaya Revolutionary Popular Forces.

For three days the kidnappers held the passengers on the plane until one morning Ross led an escape of several of the hostages, most of them Americans, by diving through a smashed window and making a run for it, according to contemporary news reports. The terrorists fired a shot at the hostages but missed. The rest of the hostages were released hours later.

In a black and white photo hanging in ABC News offices, a 33-year-old Ross is seen bleeding from the head but smiling shortly after he had made it to freedom.

Mike Vickers, currently the Under Secretary for Defense Intelligence, was on the ground with U.S. Army Special Forces at the time of the hijacking. Vickers’ Defense Department biography says he later served as an operations officer in the CIA for years before climbing the Pentagon ladder.

John Negroponte, the U.S. Ambassador to Honduras at the time, went on to serve as a career diplomatfor the U.S., twice earning the State Department’s Distinguished Service Medal before leaving the government in 2009. He now serves as vice-chairman at the D.C.-based international strategy firm McLarty Associates.

LINK to story with video.

Camera Crew: Dominic Frederico and Shannon Reed
Correspondent: Brian Ross
Producer: Carol McKinley  

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Girl Banned from Classroom for Shaving Head in Solidarity

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Girl Banned from Classroom for Shaving Head in Solidarity - LINK to story with video (Good Morning America; Air date - March 26, 2014)

Transcript: Girl Banned from Classroom for Shaving Head in Solidarity

Gio, thank you for that. A Colorado 9-year-old who shaved her head as an act of solidarity with a friend who is battling cancer. Her school's reaction, to ban her from the classroom for violating their dress code.

That obviously sparked a wave of outrage, ABC's Cecilia Vega has the story. Reporter: They are best friends who do everything together. So when 11-year-old Delaney clements lost all her hair in her fight against cancer -- I'm bald because I got this treatment called chemotherapy and it makes it fall out.

Reporter: Kamryn Renfro decided to shave hers off too. My best friend, I decided to shave my hair because I didn't want her to be the only one. Reporter: But this little girl paid a big price for her bold move.

I couldn't go to school because of my shaved head. I wanted to share my story but they didn't let me. Reporter: Kamryn's Colorado school has a dress code in place that says shaved heads are not permitted.

In order to cut down on distractions and to promote safety and uniformity. Initially I was furious and we respected the dress code. We just didn't agree with it.

Reporter: Kamryn's mom made her case on Facebook ignites a firestorm of anger at the school. With comments like "That is absolutely disgusting. " They should be ashamed and "What an amazing friend, what a selfish school.

" But this morning, Kamryn is back in her school uniform and headed to class bald head and all. The school's board holding a meeting overnight voting to make an exception in this case. Even apologizing saying in a statement "Compassion and selfless acts of courage are to be commended and encouraged.

" Kamryn did such a selfless thing for my daughter and she really taught a lesson in integrity. Reporter: A lesson that some rules are meant to be broken. For "Good morning America," Cecilia Vega, ABC news, los Angeles.

And so we learned from the young yet again, the right thing happened in the end and Kamryn, you are -- Beautiful. -- A wonderful, wonderful, beautiful friend and a little hero. What a true bff right there.

To the end. I'm glad the right thing won out. Yeah, because at first you're just outraged when you hear it so thankfully they did the right thing.

Camera Crew:  Dominic Frederico and Shannon Reed
Producer:  Carol McKinley
Air Date:  26 March 2014

Goofing around with Delaney and Kamryn at 1:30 in the morning...

Goofing around with Delaney and Kamryn at 1:30 in the morning...

Aspen Socialite Murder

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Aspen Murder Story - March 2014  (with video; Affiliate KMGH Channel 7, Denver; Air date - March 17, 2014) ASPEN, Colo. - Prosecutors have filed first-degree murder charges against a couple arrested in the killing of a prominent Aspen woman.

Authorities said 65-year-old William F. Styler III and 62-year-old Nancy Christine Styler were charged Monday in connection with the death of 57-year-old Nancy Pfister.

Over the weekend, police arrested a third suspect in Pfister's death -- 56-year-old Katherine M. Carpenter.

Pfister was the daughter of the late Betty and Art Pfister, longtime prominent Aspen residents who co-founded the Buttermilk ski area west of town. Officials still haven't revealed how Pfister was killed.

The Stylers rented Pfister's home until she returned home from traveling in Australia last month.

In January, Pfister wrote on her Facebook wall: "I'd like to stay in Australia but the people that were supposedly taking care of my house are not doing what they said they would do and they're not paying rent and they haven't paid utilities."

Carpenter called police to report finding Pfister's body in a closet in the home on Feb. 26.  She is a local Alpine Bank employee who handled Pfister's property rentals.

Nancy Pfister’s daughter, Juliana, attended the proceedings Monday.

She told ABC News that she couldn't believe someone would kill her fun-loving mother because of an alleged rent dispute.

"How could someone just be so angry that they got kicked out of a house?" Juliana said. "There's got to be something more. It's hard to understand that."

District Attorney Sherry Caloia wouldn't rule out more arrests.

"The case is still open to looking at every possibility out there. Yes it is," said Caloia. "It just doesn't happen in Aspen. It just doesn't happen."

In addition, defense investigators removed boxes of evidence from Pfister’s home in the mountains.

Camera Crew: Dominic Frederico and Shannon Reed
Correspondent: Bazi Kunani
Producer: Carol McKinley
Air Date: 17 March 2014