‘Swatting’ Extortion Plot For @Tennessee Twitter Account Caused Man's Death, Family Says

Stick with me here as I walk you through the story of Tennessee Vols fan Mark Herring, who was such an early Twitter user that he was able to grab the @Tennessee account before others could swoop in and claim it way back when the social media network was founded.

Mark died April 27, 2020 and his family says the death, ruled a heart attack, was caused by 'swatting,' which is a harassment technique used by online gaming communities and typically consists of fake reports to police agencies intended to target the subject they want to harm.

In Mark's case, the family says a plot using pizza delivery drivers was deployed against Mark's daughters, but that was just the beginning to the swatting plot. The daughters told WKRN in Nashville that Mark was told to hand over the @Tennessee account, but he refused. Hours later, the family alleges, the swatting escalated to police being called on a report that a man had killed a woman on Mark's property.

Soon Mark's property is covered in cops. A neighbor calls him and says to take cover, but Mark Herring made his way out of the house.

“He went out of the house with a gun because he heard someone was on his property and he sees all these cops around him,” Corinna Fitch, one of Herring's daughters, explained to the TV station. “They ask if he’s Mark Herring and , 'Put your hands up.' He tosses the gun away to show he’s not a threat then hands up.”

Minutes later, Herring is dead of a heart attack. "I believe he was scared to death," Mark's ex-wife said.

Police arrested Shane Sonderman, who was a minor out of Lauderdale County when Herring suffered the heart attack, on multiple charges including wire fraud, interstate communication of threats, false information, hoaxes, and also a conspiracy charge. In total, authorities believe Sonderman had six total victims across the United States. Court documents state that Sonderman accepted a plea agreement in March and is awaiting sentencing.

According to the criminal complaint that Sonderman was facing, the U.S. government accused him of creating fake accounts to conduct surveillance to "finder users with simple, catchy, interesting, and descriptive user names that other social media users might desire to have."

The plot was to target high-value accounts with the intent to turn them over for a profit via internet forums. If the person wouldn't turn over the account, Sonderman and his team of swatting goons would "bombard the owner with repeated phone calls and text messages in a campaign of harassment."

In one of his cases, Sonderman tried to extort a woman out of her Instagram account. Authorities say he asked the woman, "Do you and your family want more food? Just give the account if you don't respond in 30 minutes the food is coming either way so ignore if you choose."

You'd think Sonderman would get the idea that he needed to change his ways after agreeing to a guilty plea and facing jail time of approximately 60 months. Nope. In a sentencing document filed July 2, the government said that "the defendant decided post-plea to once again conspire with others to harass people online in order to obtain control of their social media handles – behavior that not only contradicts 'acceptance of responsibility but also violated the conditions of defendant's bond."

As for the @Tennessee Twitter account, it remains inactive and presumably still the possession of Herring's family.