A Rust player left paralyzed by cops in a swatting incident is now suing the police for $176 million.<\/p>\n
Back in April of this year, 23-year-old Tucson resident Axeel Melendez was shot in his leg and spine by two officers who stormed into his house via his bedroom window. The cops were responding to a false report of an active shooter in the building \u2014 despite Melendez previously warning their unit that he was being targeted by a potential swatter.<\/p>\n
Melendez will likely remain paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of his life, and is now seeking damages for his medical expenses and wage losses.<\/p>\n
Just two days before, Melendez had been hacked by another player of the survival game Rust, who accessed personal details on his computer and then demanded money not to release them publicly. Melendez didn’t pay, and was then threatened with swatting \u2014 a practice where armed law enforcement is called to an address under false pretences.<\/p>\n
Concerned for his safety, Melendez called 911 to report the threats and alert cops that his address could be swatted. <\/p>\n
“They said that they were going to call the police station and say that I have a bomb so that FBI shows up at my house so I could get swatted,” Melendez told a 911 responder, in a tape of the call reported by the Arizona Daily Star. “They knew my ethnicity, so they said that they were going to call ICE to show up at my house and get my whole family deported. We’re all citizens, so it’s okay.”<\/p>\n
In response, Melendez was told that a hoax caller “can’t just call the SWAT on you” and that “nothing is going to happen.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nIGN’s Top 25 Modern PC Games<\/h3>\n