Kathleen Hopkins

@Khopkinsapp



A Connecticut man stands accused in an international ring of online gamers who used Skype to call in threats of bombs, mass shootings and other terror to schools in New Jersey and five other states, including St. John Vianney High School in Holmdel, Allentown High School, Harvard University and Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

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The hoax threats, in many instances, launched massive responses by SWAT teams, bomb squads and other law enforcement while disrupting classes with prolonged evacuations, authorities said.

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Matthew Tollis, 21, of Wethersfield, Connecticut, was arrested by agents with the New Haven division of the FBI on Wednesday, said Deirdre M. Daly, U.S. Attorney for Connecticut, and Patricia M. Ferrick, special agent in charge of the FBI's New Haven Division.

Tollis was charged with conspiring to engage in a bomb-threat hoax, aiding and abetting a bomb threat hoax, and aiding and abetting the malicious conveying of false information about attempts to kill or harm individuals or destroy buildings, they said.

Xbox gamers

Daly and Ferrick alleged that Tollis was a member of a group primarily consisting of Microsoft Xbox gamers who referred to themselves as TCOD, or "TeAM CrucifiX or Die." The group used the Internet communication service Skype to make hoax threats involving bombs, hostage taking, firearms and mass murder, they said.

Tollis told authorities he got involved with the gaming ring because it protected him from online bullying and the unsolicited delivery of pizzas that he had been subjected to, according to an affidavit filed by an unnamed FBI agent.

The affidavit said Tollis admitted participating in at least six threats.

Among the incidents Tollis is alleged to have participated in was a bogus threat at St. John Vianney High School on Jan. 15 that brought scores of police to the school with guns drawn to look for an armed intruder and bombs. Tollis is accused of taking part in a similar threat targeting Allenwood High School the following day, according to the affidavit.

Authorities referred to the series of incidents as "swatting," defined as making hoax calls to elicit evacuations of schools, businesses and homes and the deployment of SWAT teams, bomb squads and other police units and emergency services.

"These events cause emotional distress for victims and waste the valuable time and resources of our law enforcement community," Daily said.

The other events Tollis is accused in are a threat made to the University of Connecticut on April 3, another to a high school in Texas on Jan. 14, threats made to Boston University and a Florida high school on April 3, and one called in to the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center on April 11.

Sandy Hook

The affidavit identified other threats made by the online gaming ring, but did not specifically attribute them to Tollis. They included a threat made to Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, the site of the mass school shooting in which 20 children and six staff members were shot dead in 2012 by a lone gunman who then committed suicide. The school has since relocated from Newtown, where the massacre occurred, to Monroe, Connecticut.

Police in Monroe confirmed to federal investigators who were investigating the swatting that a threatening call was made to the school on Aug. 18 by someone who identified himself as "Mohammed Jamile" who said he was coming to the school in 50 minutes with an assault rifle with intentions of killing everyone, the affidavit said.

Other incidents outlined in the affidavit that did not specifically name Tollis as a participant included one on April 15 in which the caller claimed he had just shot his mother in a home in Willimantic, Connecticut located near several schools. The call prompted the lockdown of the schools and drew a hostage negotiator to the scene, the affidavit said. Others included a bomb threat July 5 at Harvard University; a shooting threat targeting a video-game business in Newton, Massachusetts on Aug. 2, a bomb threat Aug. 18 to the University of Connecticut, referencing Mohammed and napalm bombs and saying that all non-believers would die, and a threat of a mass shooting at Boston University the same day, according to the affadavit.

The affidavit said the swatters would generate group Skype-to-Skype calls and then add on an emergency service number. One swatter would speak on the call while the others would listen in, it said.

"It is believed that three members of the TCOD group reside in the United Kingdom and that they have been participated (sic) in making the hoax threats from the U.K.," the affidavit said.

It said the FBI is actively working with authorities in the U.K. to identify and prosecute the three and any others.

"Tollis informed federal law-enforcement authorities that he never spoke during the swatting calls but admitted that he had laughed in the background of the calls," the affidavit said.

'Masked man'

In the threat to St. John Vianney High School, the caller said a masked man had grabbed him in the bathroom and told him he was going to blow up the school and that he was armed with a pistol and had sarin gas, the affidavit said. The caller told authorities he ran out of the school and telephoned the police. More than 1,000 students and faculty were evacuated, many seen running from the school visibly shaken, while teams of emergency responders descended upon the school to check for a gunman and explosives, the affidavit said. None were found.

"Law enforcement reported that during this incident, a child suffered a concussion when law enforcement responding to the scene breached a door that the child was hiding behind," the affidavit stated.

The next day, some 3,000 students in the Upper Freehold Regional School District were evacuated after a call was made to the district's Allentown High School, claiming a bomb had been placed in the lavatory, according to the affidavit.

Some of the threats evoked fear of Middle-Eastern terrorists, according to the affidavit. For instance, in the threat made to the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, the caller claimed to be an Iraqi national working for Allah who was upset that innocent Iraqis were being killed and that his children were murdered by the Marines, the affidavit said. At the time of the threat, a gaming show expected to attract 60,000 attendees was scheduled to take place.

Tollis told investigators that his association with TCOD began after an individual in Oregon began to bully him online, according to the affidavit. The bullying extended to "pizza bombs," which Tollis said entailed receiving unsolicited deliveries of unpaid pizzas, the affidavit said.

Tollis is being held by federal authorities in Bridgeport, where a detention hearing in federal court is scheduled for today. .

Kathleen Hopkins: 732-643-4202; Khopkins@app.com