The Denton County, Texas District Attorney’s office is expected to convene a grand jury this month to investigate the suicide of a High School football coach last October.
The investigation will focus on whether TikTok content creator Danesh Noshirvan, AKA @ThatDaneshGuy, will be held criminally responsible for the death of Aaron De La Torre, 49.
According to TikTok, Noshirvan, 38, has more than two million “followers” – a combination of humans and AI bots.
While suicide is technically the victim’s act, under Texas law, the influencer could face felony criminal charges of cyberstalking and manslaughter if he created the conditions that led to De La Torre’s death.
AI at the Root of the Harassment?
Corinth Police Department Investigator Jason Richbourg leads a task force that reportedly subpoenaed TikTok, other social media platforms, and internet service providers.
According to sources, investigators have pieced together a “digital crime scene” linking Noshirvan to AI-driven technology that targeted De La Torre.
In late September, Noshirvan began posting videos about De La Torres, alleging his response to a toy thrown by youths that struck his wife was “to yell and curse at the kids, stalk them when they left the store, confront them down the street, beat them up, choke, and dragging them towards an unknown location away from the public.”
After Noshirvan published the video, De La Torre received calls, texts, online comments, and emails urging him to kill himself. A flood of messages and calls came to Denton Ryan High School, urging the board to fire him. Another series of calls urged the Hickory Creek police to arrest him.
The Fort Worth Star Telegraph reported, “Videos detailing the alleged assault went viral on social media, collecting thousands of views.”
No One Injured in Alleged Assault
Investigators reportedly believe most calls and texts were AI-generated, which created the illusion of widespread human outrage directed toward De La Torre.
Norshirvan’s description of the alleged assault by De La Torres toward the youth was different than the reports by the police:
“On Saturday, 09/28/2024, at approximately 1838 hours, Hickory Creek Police Department Officers responded to a 911 call and possible disturbance at the RaceTrac Gas Station…
“Officers arrived on the scene and observed several individuals reporting that an adult male subject appeared to have assaulted a juvenile male (12 years old). Additionally, many witnesses were filming the incident with personal recording devices. Officers located and interviewed the witnesses and received conflicting statements about the incident. …On the scene, the preliminary investigation revealed insufficient probable cause to effect an on-site arrest. There were no immediately visible signs of assault, injury, or other evidence to support an offense had occurred…”
Within days, the Hickory Creek police issued a press release declining to arrest De La Torres.
“Investigators have obtained all known CCTV footage of the interaction between the adult and the juvenile male…
“After the complete case review, the juvenile’s parent decided that although she does not support the actions taken towards her son by an adult, she believes that no criminal activity occurred and chose not to press charges.”
The Denton Ryan School Board decided not to fire De La Torre:
“Given that local law enforcement closed its investigation… with no charges being filed.”
The lack of arrest and firing caused Danesh to release additional videos, blaming the school for a cover-up, and alleging De La Torre had seriously injured another boy a year earlier.
Danesh called De La Torre “a threat” to his “community” and vowed to get “justice” for the child.
Leads to Suicide
As the videos, texts, phone calls, and comments on social media platforms such as Reddit continued, it appeared thousands had taken an interest in an event where no one was injured.
Friends reported De La Torre grew increasingly depressed and felt he faced mounting public pressure, unaware that most calls and texts were AI, not human.
At the peak of a perceived avalanche of human hate, De La Torres shot himself, ending his life.
Danesh blamed the police and the school board.
In a TikTok response to the suicide, Noshirvan said:
“The death of this man is a deeply sad event and no one ever wanted it to end this way. My heart goes out to this family during this difficult time. However, my focus has been and will continue to be on protecting children, and families who have allegedly been harmed. These children deserve justice and it is important to remember the responsibility lies with the choices made throughout this case, the choice the school made not to act decisively and the choice law enforcement made not to pursue charges sooner.”
The ultimate question of criminality boils down to whether Danesh crossed the line from First Amendment-protected speech to felony stalking if he used AI technology to stalk De La Torre, his family, his community, his employer, and the police with AI calls and texts.
Programs and services can send 1,000 text messages per hour using scripts. Spoofing software can make text messages appear from different numbers. There are voice technologies that allow individuals to make calls using different voices.
De La Torre had a brief playing career in the NFL and the NFL Europe, and was a high school coach for 16 years.
He had been married for 25 years and had four children.
