The LAPD have arrested a 25-year-old man whose alleged prank phone call, understood to be related to a rivalry in an online game of Call Of Duty, resulted in the shooting death of an innocent 28-year-old man in Wichita, in the US state of Kansas.
The suspect, Tyler Barriss, is understood to have history of “swatting”, a cyber crime in which gamers call in false threats to law enforcement in an attempt to have real-world police or SWAT teams dispatched to the houses of opponents.
Barriss, who apparently went by the name SWAuTistic online, spoke about the shooting incident in a series of Tweets (now unavailable as his account is suspended), claiming that he was contacted by an angry Call Of Duty player who asked him to “take care of” a rival.
The player supplied Barriss with the address of a seemingly random house in Kansas; a short time later, police received a call from a man claiming to be at the address, saying he had shot his father, taken his family hostage and poured gasoline over the premises.
When police arrived at the address, 28-year-old resident Andrew Finch went to the door, unaware of the situation unfolding; officers began shouting commands at Finch, and he was shot and killed a short time later by a policeman who believed he may have been reaching for a gun.
Immediately after the incident, Barriss Tweeted:
“That kids [sic] house I swatted is on the news.”
He later wrote:
“I DIDNT [sic] GET ANYONE KILLED BECAUSE I DIDNT [sic] DISCHARGE A WEAPON AND BEING A SWAT MEMBER ISNT [sic] MY PROFESSION.”
Barriss is currently being held without bail. Per reports in the LA Times, he was also arrested in 2015 on charges of making false bomb threats to a TV studio in Glendale, California.
Finch’s family have lashed out at police for their handling of the incident. His mother Lisa Finch said that family members were forced to step over his body and handcuffed barefoot in the cold after the shooting, as officers searched the house.
“What gives the cops the right to open fire?” she asked. “That cop murdered my son over a false report in the first place.” Finch was a father of two.
For now, Wichita police appear to be putting the blame solely on the prank 911 call, saying that “the irresponsible actions of a prankster put people and lives at risk,” and that “due to the actions of a prankster, we have an innocent victim.”
The officer who shot Finch, a seven-year veteran of the force, is on paid leave pending an investigation.
