A Riverside man accused of making a series of calls nationwide faking his intention to commit mass shootings at schools and carry out other crimes was engaged in a vicious prank to force law enforcement agencies to respond, according to allegations in a federal indictment released Wednesday.
Eduardo Vicente Pelayo Rodriguez, 31, is charged with seven counts each of transmitting threats in interstate commerce and engaging in hoaxes, as well as three counts of transmitting threats or false information regarding explosives and one count of stalking.
Rodriguez was slated to make his initial appearance at U.S. District Court in downtown Riverside Wednesday afternoon. He was arrested Tuesday and booked into a federal detention center. Bail information was unavailable.
“The sorts of `swatting’ crimes alleged against this defendant are highly troubling,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said. “The indictment alleges that the defendant placed calls to schools, airports and other locations that were designed to cause maximum fear and trigger an emergency response. `Swatting’ is a serious crime that can cause great trauma and risk loss of life, so it is important that we hold wrongdoers accountable.”
The practice involves using false identities and often hard-to-trace communications lines to phone in random bogus threats for the thrill of it.
According to the indictment, in January and February 2023, Rodriguez allegedly utilized a voice-over internal protocol service to make over a dozen calls, identifying himself as someone else in the throes of an emotional crisis.
He started out contacting suicide prevention and veterans crisis hotlines, saying he wanted to die and would take others with him, court papers allege.
“Rodriguez allegedly then called school staff at seven different schools — in Riverside and San Bernardino counties — as well as Sandy Hook, Connecticut, and threatened to commit either a mass shooting or bombing at the schools,” according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office statement. “Finally, Rodriguez called Nashville International Airport in Tennessee, said he had planted a bomb on a plane and in the airport and said, `this is for ISIS,’ and `one hour, boom.”’
In each instance, law enforcement personnel investigated the calls, ultimately determining they were the inauthentic.
A mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012, killed 20 students and six educators.
“Mr. Rodriguez is alleged to have conducted swatting attacks, to include the callous targeting of an open wound at Sandy Hook, without regard for the potential consequences of this insidious type of hoax,” Los Angeles FBI Field Office Acting Assistant Director Krysti Hawkins said. “Perpetrators of swatting hoaxes should understand the FBI and our local partners take these threats seriously and that the penalties — if convicted — are considerable.”
Background information on the defendant was unavailable.
Along with the FBI, the Riverside Police Department, Riverside County District Attorney’s Office and several agencies elsewhere in the nation joined in the investigation.