Watch: Swat teams raid homes of Republican influencers in the night

Yahoo

25-03-2025

Credit: X/@OwenShroyer1776, Larry Taunton, Erin Derham.
Shortly before 2am, Erin Derham awoke to the sound of loud banging at the door.
Confused and half-asleep, she ran to the front entrance in her polka-dot pyjamas to find a police officer in a bulletproof vest armed with a pistol, his finger on the trigger.
Ten minutes later, the married mother-of-three collapsed on the upstairs landing as the adrenaline that had been coursing through her body began to dissipate. 'It's okay mom,' her 13-year-old said while patting her mother's leg.
Ms Derham, 40, and her husband Matt Van Swol, 31, had just been 'swatted' – a crime that involves making a fake emergency call to draw first responders to a person's home.
Credit: Erin Derham
Incidents have spiked over the past fortnight with more than a dozen influencers targeted – the majority of whom appear to be Trump supporters.
While some have dismissed swatting as a form of prank call, it can be deadly. In 2017, 28-year-old Andrew Finch was shot dead by police at his home in a swatting incident.
Finch, who was not involved in the dispute between two Call of Duty players, was targeted as one of the gamers who was falsely using his address.
The first-ever UK sentence for swatting was passed last year after a man was shot in the face by police who responded to a hoax call.
'Just picture a gun in your face and your kids are 10ft away. There is nothing funny about that,' said Ms Derham, who described the practice as the 'cheapest form of terrorism'.
Many of those targeted have also interacted online with Elon Musk, the head of Mr Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), with the tech billionaire re-sharing their posts.
Mr Musk has called for the perpetrators to 'face justice'.
The FBI and Homeland Security have both announced investigations into the 'alarming rise' in the incidents.
'The FBI is aware of this dangerous trend, and my team and I are already taking action to investigate and hold those responsible accountable,' said Kash Patel, Bureau's director.
Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, wrote on X last week: 'Under President Trump's leadership, we will not sit idly by as conservative new media and their families are being targeted by false swatting.
'We will use it to hunt these cowards down. This is an attack on our law enforcement and innocent families and we will prosecute it as such.'
Ms Derham had some idea of what might be happening when she opened the door.
'I yelled for Matt to come and said, 'we're being swatted,'' she said.
The historian and filmmaker had seen reports on X of conservative influencers being swatted in recent days and had warned her local police department that she and her family might be targeted.
The couple, who previously voted Democrat, rose to prominence as community activists calling for more aid to be distributed to North Carolina after Hurricane Helene.
Mr Van Swol's account, which has more than 198,000 followers on X, has been reposted and commented on by Mr Musk on a regular basis.
'I screamed, 'there are three kids upstairs,'' Ms Derham said, as she tried to explain to the officers that the call was a hoax. 'I was so scared they were going to wake up.'
According to Ms Derham, an officer later told her they had received a 911 call from someone pretending to be her husband, saying his wife had been shot and killed, and that he had been shot and was hiding in the bathroom.
'Whoever did this, they were trying to get us killed,' she said.
In total, four police cars, two ambulances and a fire crew were called out to their house in Asheville, North Carolina. Both were left traumatised by the event.
'I just stare at the door waiting for the next horrible thing to happen,' said Mr Van Swol.
'What's given me pause for thought is that someone could read anything I write, and think it's worth sending police to my home to terrorise me and my kids.'
Local police declined to comment when approached by The Telegraph.
Ms Derham and her husband are not the only Right-wing media personalities to receive a knock on their door from police in the middle of the night.
Larry Taunton, host of the Ideas Have Consequences podcast, was lying in bed at home in rural Alabama earlier this month when he caught sight of his german shepherd, Ranger, on edge, with his ears 'moving like satellite dishes'.
'I was thinking, 'I wonder if I have a raccoon stuck in the wall,'' he said. 'I wasn't thinking I must have five heavily armed officers coming down the driveway.'
Credit: Larry Taunton
The 57-year-old removed his Glock pistol from its holster and advanced to the front door, where he could see the silhouette of a heavily armed man.
'I'm thinking if this guy comes through the door, I'm probably opening fire on him,' he said.
Luckily, the married journalist and author saw the glint of a police badge, turned on his hallway light and was able to talk down the officers.
Mr Taunton has been on Steve Bannon's War Room podcast – a Maga talking shop – several times, and believes he may have been targeted for his conservative stance.
'They are deliberately targeting people because they don't like their political views, and they are creating a highly combustible atmosphere where they don't even care who gets killed,' he said.
'Regardless of your political views, I don't care if you're Nancy Pelosi who I detest, I do not wish this on you.
'They are using local law enforcement as proxy assassination squads, and that must stop.'
Josh Tubbs, chief deputy of the local county Sheriff's Office, said: 'Thank goodness that cool and level heads prevailed here because that is a very dangerous situation.'
Mr Tubbs confirmed that the department is investigating the case along with the FBI.
Owen Shroyer, a Jan 6 defendant who has since been pardoned, claimed he was made to lie on the ground by officers and crawl backwards before he was able to persuade them it was a hoax when he was swatted at his home in Austin, Texas, a few weeks ago.
'If you want to disagree with my politics, you're more than welcome to,' he said. 'But to have some concept of me that I'm a monster, or I'm somebody that deserves violence is just tremendously wrong.
'If it starts happening to you liberals or Democrats, I'm going to stand up just as loudly for them to not be victimised by this as well.'
Credit: X/@OwenShroyer1776
Although the majority of those targeted by the spate of swatting incidents appear to be Republicans, some prominent Democrat supporters have also reported armed police turning up at their door.
On Thanksgiving morning last November, five Democratic congressmen from Connecticut received hoax bomb threats at their homes, prompting law enforcement to turn up at their door.
The alleged plot came a day after similar bomb threats were made at the homes of multiple nominees to Donald Trump's cabinet, including Pete Hegseth, the defence secretary, and Elise Stefanik, who has been tapped as UN ambassador.
Austin Police Department were contacted for comment.
The FBI referred to Mr Patel's X statement when approached by The Telegraph.
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