Serial Swatter Sentenced to 20 Years Prison

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Variety

HOME GAMING NEWS MARCH 29, 2019 9:38AM PT
Serial Swatter Sentenced to 20 Years Prison
By BRIAN CRECENTE

Tyler Barriss, the 26-year-old California man responsible for making a hoax 911 call that led to the 2017 death of a Wichita, Kan. man was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Friday, the Associated Press reports.

An argument between two "Call of Duty" players over a $1.50 bet led to the fake call after one player asked Barriss to "swat" the other. "Swatting" is the practice of calling in fake threats to send law enforcement and emergency responders to an unsuspecting person's home. Barriss called Wichita police and told them he'd murdered his father and was holding the rest of his family hostage. He allegedly gave police an address he thought belonged to the "Call of Duty" player he wanted to swat. But, it belonged to 28-year-old Andrew Finch, who was uninvolved in the argument. Police responded to Finch's home and shot and killed him when he answered the door. It was the first time a swatting incident resulted in someone's death in the U.S.

U.S. District Judge Eric Melgren sentenced Barriss under a deal in which he pleaded guilty in November to a total of 51 federal charges related to fake calls and threats, according to the AP. Prosecutors were seeking a 25-year sentence and the defense a 20-year sentence.

The Wichita officer who shot Finch wasn't criminally charged. The "Call of Duty" player who asked Barriss to swat his opponent, 18-year-old Casey Viner, was charged with wire fraud, conspiracy to make a false report, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy to obstruct justice. The other person involved in the argument, 19-year-old Shane Gaskill, was charged with obstruction of justice, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and wire fraud. Authorities say the pair talked about hiding their involvement in the case, and Viner wiped and factory-reset his iPhone.

Finch's family has sued the city of Witchita and the officer involved in the shooting.

Read more: https://variety.com/2019/gaming/news/serial-swatter-sentenced-to-20-years-prison-1203176052/

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Hat tip, Popehat:

sic semper swatters

Link to tweet

[tblue37]

1. K&R. nt

[RKP5637]

2. K&R!!! n/t

[forgotmylogin]

3. I'm glad they're doing something about this.

It's awful someone had to die though.

[sdfernando]

4. Well I don't think 20 years is long enough!

Someone was killed and he did this multiple times....and the kid that asked him to do it? What was his sentence? This is close to hiring a hitman, though not quite.

[Julian Englis]

5. Imagine how much worse his sentence would have been if he had made a false report about

his false report had been a fake report about weapons of mass destruction that led to war that led to hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths, thousands of Americans killed, and cost trillions of dollars. He and hiss co-conspirators would have been imprisoned, forced to apologized, and be labeled one of the greatest villains of all of the nation’s history.

Right? 🤫

[PatrickforO]

6. It boggles my mind that the murdering officer wasn't charged.

What, the guy opens his door and the cop blazes away without even saying anything?

What the hell is that? I hope those civil suits are successful.

[yagotme]

7. This.

I mean, seriously??? Cops going into an "armed individual/hostage taker" report, and not making verbal contact with homeowner before going to door???

[The Mouth]

8. Swatter and cop should both get life without parole

[MarcA]

14. Exactly. n/t

[demigoddess]

9. shot and killed him when he answered the door?!?!?!

the police came to my door once. They had the wrong house. They wanted a house in the next block!! Glad they didn't shoot me!!!

[Grokenstein]

16. 1st Cop: "Just followin' trainin'."

2nd Cop: "Call an ambulance, he's still breath--"
(1st Cop reloads and empties weapon into victim)
2nd Cop: "What the hell, man?"
1st Cop: "Just followin' trainin'. More dangerous wounded."

[Downtown Hound]

10. Um, shot him while he answered the door?

While I'm glad this pathetic incel is going away for a long time, what the hell is SWAT thinking when they just shoot a man for opening his door?

[Aristus]

11. Hope it was worth it, fuckhead.

God, I'm so sick of stupid people and the horrors they visit upon the rest of us.

[marble falls]

12. About right. I hope the other three get something close to at least 10 yrs.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

13. The police are also hugely at fault.

They shot and killed the man just for answering his door? Clearly, they need a lot more training about how to handle a supposed hostage situation.

[rocktivity]

15. He should have been charged with felony murder, too

But has the cop been taken off duty, at least?


rocktivity

[RVN VET71]

17. In a world of good policing

the cops would have gone to the house, contacted the guy inside before rushing in with their guns blazing, determined that the call was a hoax and, after some back and forth with the poor civilian, filed a report. Maybe even apologized.

Their report would have led police to the fool who made the call. He would have been arrested and found guilty of, what?, filing a false claim or some such and sentenced to a short jail term and/or community service.

Case closed.

But this is America, the greatest country in the whole damned world. Here we train our police to kill first and ask questions of the corpse. Here we sentence an idiot to 20 years in prison because the police murdered someone the idiot unintentionally sent them to. And the murderers get, what? Thanks from a grateful community? Maybe a promotion?

This case sucks on so many levels, and justice, far from being served, was pushed aside in an apparent desire to distract the public from the police murder by sentences this poor shnub to 2 decades in the Big House.