Columbus man pleads guilty to helping found ‘Purgatory’ swatting group
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A Columbus man has pleaded guilty to creating an online group known as “Purgatory” to conduct swatting and doxxing incidents across the country, including hoax threats to police here to kill people and threatening to blow up the Hollywood Casino.
Brayden Grace, 19, pleaded guilty June 11 in U.S. District Court in Maryland to conspiracy, cyberstalking, interstate threatening communications, and threats to damage or destroy through fire and explosives.
Federal prosecutors say Grace and co-conspirators Owen Jarboe, then 18, of Hagerstown, Maryland, and Evan Strauss, then 26, of Moneta, Virginia, used Instagram and other online social media platforms to coordinate and plan swatting and doxxing activities. “Swatting” occurs when an individual contacts emergency services and falsely reports an emergency, often involving an act of violence, that has or will occur at a particular location to elicit a large, armed law enforcement response to that location. “Doxxing” involves searching for personal information about an individual and publishing it online with malicious intent, including swatting.
“Grace and his co-conspirators threatened and terrorized others throughout the country, and then bragged about it online,” said Kelly O. Hayes, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, in a news release. “Make no mistake: swatting and doxxing are not pranks — they are dangerous and illegal acts that put lives at risk and drain critical law enforcement resources.”
Amanda M. Koldjeski, acting special-agent-in-charge of the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office, said Grace “admitted he engaged in swatting and doxxing to strike out at perceived rivals, gain online notoriety, attempt to make money, and for enjoyment.” She said the FBI and its partner law enforcement agencies “will make sure offenders do not remain anonymous and face justice for their crimes, which drain vital public safety resources, cause undue fear, and put innocent lives at risk.”
Between Dec. 10, 2023, and Jan. 18, 2024, Grace and his co-conspirators used shared scripts and conducted other planning to place swatting calls to police and other emergency departments. They used Voice over Internet Protocol services to hide their phone numbers and identities, the release said.
Grace posted the address of the Hollywood Casino in Columbus, the non-emergency telephone number for the Columbus Division of Police, and the name of a specific doxxing victim, according to the release. Purgatory conspirators called the Columbus police later that day, threatening to “start shooting” and blow up the Hollywood Casino on the city’s West Side.
Some other incidents prosecutors accuse Grace and/or co-conspirators of conducting:
- A threat to burn down a residential trailer park in Dothan, Houston County, Alabama, and kill any law enforcement officers who attempted to stop it.
- A shooting threat against a teacher and unnamed students that led law enforcement to swarm a high school in Newark, Delaware.
- A shooting and bomb threat to the Albany International Airport in New York.
- A multiple homicide event and shooting threat against individuals in a residence in Eastman, Dodge County, Georgia.
According to the release, other locations where swatting incidents occurred or where law enforcement were involved include Boston, Massachusetts; Bethel Park in western Pennsylvania; Lenoir City, Tennessee; Fairburn City, Georgia; Giles County, Virginia; Blue Springs, Missouri’ Tarboro, North Carolina.
Grace faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison for each count of threatening to damage or destroy by fire or explosives and a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for conspiracy, cyberstalking, and interstate threats. Typically, the release said, actual sentences for federal crimes are less than the maximum penalties after a federal district court judge takes into account sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.
Grace is scheduled to be sentenced at 10 a.m. on Aug. 14 in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.