Vegas teen arrested for prank calling police about killings, kidnappings

A Las Vegas teen was arrested Thursday for making prank calls to police about killings and kidnappings in two other states.

Brandon Wilson, 19, was arrested in Las Vegas in connection with the crime, which is sometimes called “swatting.” The arrest was the culmination of a multi-jurisdictional investigation that included the FBI.

The Tom Green County Sheriff’s Office in west central Texas said it received a call from a man claiming he had just killed his father and tied up his mother in a home near the community of San Angelo on the night of June 15, 2014. The man said he had a rifle and a handgun and would shoot any officers who responded, according to the sheriff’s office.

The call prompted a full response from several law enforcement agencies and medical personnel. Police surrounded the home and realized it was a prank when the innocent people inside came out more than an hour later.

“Calls of this nature place law enforcement officers, emergency response personnel and citizens in a very dangerous situation,” Tom Green County Sheriff David Jones said last summer in a release about the incident.

Wilson was arrested following an investigation that involved the FBI and police in California, Illinois and South Carolina. A search warrant executed in partnership with Las Vegas police identified Wilson through computers seized from his home.

Wilson also has been charged in similar incidents in Naperville, Ill., about 28 miles west of Chicago, according to a Friday news release from Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow.

The Naperville Police Department received a 911 call, which they believe was made with a computer, saying that a homicide had occurred on July 10, 2014. Officers arrived with a special response team and found nothing, Glasgow said.

Charges against Wilson allege that he also hacked into the gaming consoles of two people from different cities in Illinois, telling one person that he was going to access social security numbers and bank accounts and leave the victim’s father “in debt for life,” Glasgow said.

Wilson, known in the gaming community as “Famed God,” will be extradited from Las Vegas to Illinois to face two charges of computer tampering in addition to charges of computer fraud, identity theft and disorderly conduct. The teen, who is still under investigation, faces up to five years in prison if he is convicted.

Las Vegas police spokesman Officer Larry Hadfield said he had never heard this type of crime described as swatting, and he didn’t think it was a local problem. The FBI’s Las Vegas field office did not return calls for more information Monday night.

Contact Wesley Juhl at wjuhl@reviewjournal.com and 702-383-0391. Find him on Twitter: @WesJuhl.