3 people face federal charges after 'swatting' threat at Newark High School

Kelly Powers, Delaware News Journal
·2 min read

Arrests have been made in connection to a "swatting" incident at Newark High School earlier this year.

A federal grand jury in Baltimore has returned a superseding indictment against 18-year-old Owen Jarboe and 26-year-old Evan Strauss, Newark police shared in a press release. These charges are connected to the January shooting threat that targeted a teacher and unnamed students at the Delaware school, police said, along with other crimes stretching across the country from December 2023 to this past January.

Jarboe, of Hagerstown, Maryland, and Strauss, of Moneta Back, Virginia, face charges of conspiracy, cyberstalking, interstate threatening communications and threats to damage or destroy by means of fire and explosives. They are joined by 18-year-old Brayden Grace of Columbus, Ohio, with the same charges in the full indictment shared by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland.

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According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the group, "along with other conspirators, knowingly and unlawfully conspired to place and caused to be placed swatting calls to multiple police and emergency departments across the United States." And the indictment alleges that such swatting activities were planned by the defendants as part of an online group known as “Purgatory.”

They could face up to five years in federal prison for each count of conspiracy, cyberstalking and interstate threat, according to law enforcement, with a maximum sentence of 10 years on each charge to damage or destroy by means of fire and explosive.

Now, these crimes will be prosecuted in federal court in Maryland, according to police.

Among the swatting incidents alleged in the superseding indictment were:

  • Threat to burn down a residential trailer park in Alabama

  • Shooting threat against a teacher and unnamed students at a high school in Delaware

  • Shooting and bomb threat to the Albany International Airport in New York

  • Shooting and bomb threat against a casino in Ohio

  • Multiple-homicide event and shooting threat against individuals in a residence in Eastman, Georgia

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Newark High School 'swatting' threat leads to federal charges