At the tail end of 2017, a Call of Duty swatting incident in Kansas took the life of a completely innocent man after police killed him following a fake tip to the wrong address.
As we’ve previously chronicled, California resident Tyler Barriss reportedly called Wichita police to detail a supposed murder/hostage/arson in progress, using the address of what he apparently believed was one Call of Duty player intended as the focus of the ensuing police harassment, as provided by another player and played out live on Twitter. The address used, however, was apparently for a completely unrelated person, father of two Andrew Finch, who was subsequently shot and killed by police after opening his door. Barriss was charged with involuntary manslaughter and extradited to Kansas, having tweeted an admission of guilt and being suspected of multiple other incidents, including a bomb threat.
Sitting in prison isn’t turning Barriss into a model citizen, you’ll be unsurprised to learn. As the Wichita Eagle reports (and Slashdot conveniently sums up), Barriss managed to snag internet access last week and tweeted out brand-new threats, which probably will not help him if and when he is convicted of this and the other pending criminal complaints.
As for the other actors in the lie that caused an innocent man’s death? Apparently, the two Call of Duty players – including the one who supposedly asked for the other to be swatted and delivered the fake address – will not be charged. Neither will be the police officer who shot Finch; apparently, the district attorney determined that multiple officers thought Finch was reaching for a gun, thereby justifying the shots fired, which you’ll note doesn’t quite comport with the original reporting. Finch’s family’s civil suit is proceeding as planned.
Catch up on the whole story:
