Tyler Barriss, the 25-year-old Los Angeles man who was arrested last month for his involvement in a SWATting incident, has now been charged.
He was charged with involuntary manslaughter in placing a SWATting call that resulted in a fatal police shooting of 28-year-old Andrew Finch in Wichita, Kansas on 28 December.
SWATting, which takes its name from elite law enforcement units called SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) teams, is the practice of making a false report to emergency services about shootings, bomb threats, hostage taking, or other alleged violent crime in the hopes that law enforcement will respond to a targeted address with deadly force.
In a police briefing the day following the fatal shooting, Wichita Deputy Police Chief Troy Livingston said that the result of the Wichita SWAT has been a “nightmare” for everyone involved: police, the community and Finch’s family.
After his arrest, Barriss didn’t admit to placing the call that led to Finch’s death. He did, however, express remorse in an interview from Sedgwick County jail that he gave to a local TV station.
From the recording:
As far as serving any amount of time. I’ll just take responsibility and serve whatever time, or whatever it is that they throw at me… I’m willing to do it. That’s just how I feel about it.
Barriss said that whatever punishment results from his role in the death of Andrew Finch, it doesn’t matter: it won’t change what happened.
Whether you hang me from a tree, or you give me 5, 10, 15 years… I don’t think it will ever justify what happened.
In the emergency call recording, a man said he’d shot his father in the head. The caller also said he was holding his mother and a sibling at gunpoint in a closet. He said he’d poured gasoline all over the house and that he was thinking of lighting the house on fire.
Police surrounded Finch’s Wichita home, prepared to deal with a hostage situation. When Finch answered the door, he followed police instructions to put up his hands and move slowly. But at some point, authorities said, Finch appeared to be moving his hand toward his waistband as if he was going to pull out a gun.
A single shot killed Finch. He was dead by the time he reached the hospital. Police said the innocent man was unarmed.
Barriss allegedly made the threatening call after a Call of Duty game in which two teammates were disputing a $1.50 wager. Apparently, one had accidentally “killed” a teammate in the role-playing game.
One of the players sent incorrect details of a nearby address to a known swatter, who was reportedly responsible for evacuations over a bomb hoax call at the Call of Duty World League Dallas Open last month.
After his arrest, Barriss said he felt “a little” remorse.
Of course, you know, I feel a little of remorse for what happened. I never intended for anyone to get shot and killed. I don’t think during any attempted swatting anyone’s intentions are for someone to get shot and killed. I guess they’re just going for that shock factor whatever it is, for whatever reason someone’s attempting swat, or whatever you want to call it.
As for why he would do such a thing in the first place, he wasn’t insightful:
There is no inspiration. I don’t get bored and just sit around and decide I’m going to make a SWAT call.
Barriss said that he often gets paid to make the fake emergency calls, but he wouldn’t say whether he was paid to make the SWATting call in Wichita that led to Finch’s death.
A Twitter account called @SWAuTistic took credit for the SWATting but then turned around and denied responsibility. On the Thursday night following the shooting, SWAuTistic tweeted this:
I DIDNT GET ANYONE KILLED BECAUSE I DIDNT DISCHARGE A WEAPON AND BEING A SWAT MEMBER ISNT MY PROFESSION.
The Twitter account was suspended soon after.
According to security reporter Brian Krebs, SWAuTistic claimed credit for placing dozens of these calls, calling in bogus hostage situations and bomb threats at roughly 100 schools and at least 10 residences. He also claimed responsibility for bomb threats against a high school in Florida and the bomb threat that interrupted the FCC net neutrality vote in November.
Krebs’ report is well worth the read. One pearl of information: it appears that Kansas investigators were led to Barriss, the man who’s allegedly behind the @SWAuTistic account, by Eric “Cosmo the God” Taylor.
Remember him? He pleaded guilty to being part of the group that SWATted Krebs in 2013.
From Krebs:
Taylor is now trying to turn his life around, and is in the process of starting his own cybersecurity consultancy. In a posting on Twitter at 6:21 p.m. ET Dec. 29, Taylor personally offered a reward of $7,777 in Bitcoin for information about the real-life identity of SWAuTistic.
In short order, several people who claimed to have known SWAuTistic responded by coming forward publicly and privately with Barriss’s name and approximate location, sharing copies of private messages and even selfies that were allegedly shared with them at one point by Barriss.
If Barriss does indeed turn out to be SWAuTistic, anticipate more arrests as investigators continue on to find others involved in this tragedy.
brianc6234
Call of Duty isn’t a role playing game. It’s a first person shooter. But this guy already served two years in prison for swatting. I guess that didn’t teach him a thing.
Anonymous
I’d be interested in hearing whether the gamer who sent the wrong address information has any charges coming. When someone angrily asks for your address, it’s completely acceptable to not provide any info.
Granted, there’s some Hindsight Effect here, but the act of giving a wrong address to a known SWATter feels like pushing a random stranger in front of a bus.
Team Kills can be a drag, but when the price tag on an actual human life is $1.50…holy crap.
Anonymous
So what about the poorly trained officer who shot an innocent man for no actionable reason? Free pass?
Then nothing will change.
Paul Ducklin
At least part of the answer to that question is in the article, where an “actionable reason” (no matter how tragic) is given.
Wilbur
Paul, I disagree. Trained SWAT officers are supposed to undergo extensive “Shoot/No Shoot” training where they must make instant decisions under simulated conditions in “shoot houses”. This was no rookie street cop, he was reported to be a member of a special weapons team and was supposed to have extensive advanced training. He had his gun drawn, aimed and ready to be fired; he had time to wait for a weapon to be visible before pulling the trigger. He could pull the trigger on his already aimed gun much faster than a Bad Guy can draw a weapon from concealment and bring it to ready. SWAT is supposed to regularly train for exactly this scenario – that’s why they are “Special”. IMHO he simply panicked, and there is no room for that on a SWAT team.
Paul Ducklin
I wasn’t there. Given what you know, I’m assuming you were and can therefore judge the cop who fired the fatal shot perfectly fairly. (For the record: I am not suggesting that no mistake was made. I am just suggesting that insisting “the cop had no reason to fire his weapon” seems to be unfairly judgmental.)
Rob
Finally a voice of reason.
Max
Well, there is a video of it. If any person shouldn’t fire his gun on an unarmed man without immediate threat to his life it should be a SWAT member. At the very least he shouldn’t be placed on a SWAT team anymore, in my opinion.
lucusloc
If you think that was a valid reason and not an ass covering reason then that is part of the problem. As I said in my (still awaiting moderation) previous comment police get respect because they are in a job that requires (in the moral sense, not the legal one) them to risk their lives to protect the innocent. That is not what this cop did. He valued his right to go home that nigh higher than the life of an innocent man, and use the now classic “threatening gesture” excuse to do it. A civilian using the same excuse in a defensive shooting would go to jail for manslaughter at least, so why are supposedly more highly trained cops held to a lesser standard?
Rob
The poorly trained officer would never have been at that address if it weren’t for the “poorly” human Mr. Barris.
lucusloc
That does not absolve him of the responsibility of pulling the trigger.
Wevy
Thanks to Barriss, the police thought Andrew Finch had already killed one person, had hostages and “that he was thinking of lighting the house on fire”. This is the very definition of armed and dangerous. Any movement other than what was directed could easily have been deadly. It’s horrible that an innocent man died. The blame falls squarely on Barriss and the gamer that called for the SWATing incident.
Max
The supposed gunman also was still on the line with 911. With a bit more communication they would have seen right there that he couldn’t be the guy calling if he didn’t hold a phone in his hand. Also, what if the person opening the door would have been an actual hostage? In shock, surprised by spot lights, loud noises, after just witnessing a murder. Pretty sure they might have made a “wrong move” too, meaning SWAT would have likely shot a hostage in the same way. Something is definitely wrong with their protocols.
Anonymous
Apparently noone asks why your police keeps shooting unarmed people. Trigger-happy americans…
Paul Ducklin
As mentioned above, at least part of the answer to why a shot was fired is there in the article.
I think America is still free and brave enough to expect that the Wichita Police will go public with its inquiry into thus incident and its aftermath, and to have that expectation met.
Anonymous
Reaching for your waistband is not warrant the action of a 1 shot kill. If police officers can’t be trained well enough to disable a target instead of immediately firing a life ending shot, they need to be fired and tried in the courts. That’s not how police officers are trained, it’s not acceptable for the situation, and it’s a crime. But, it won’t happen, he’ll walk free with paid time off.
lucusloc
That is not how guns work. Any shot is potentially lethal, and shooting for extremities is actually more risky to bystanders than shooting for a well aimed “kill” shot. Assuming there was justification to pull the trigger this was a good shoot. Problem is there was not. Cop should never have pulled the trigger until an actual threat was *verified*, not just “suspected”.
Rob
Paul, stop placating. America as a concept is free and brave. There are thousands of Americans demonstrating this every day. Your attempt to appease this poster is horrible. There are shady policemen out there in every country. It has nothing to do with nationality. Grow some. A pimply boy made a decision that nearly caused a death. The responsibility lies solely with him, not the police. The police officer would have been happily eating a donut and drinking his 4th cup of coffee if it weren’t for mr. pimple. Not to be rude but really, think about it. That officer likely has a family perhaps a little girl he wants to be home with after his shift. You respond to a 911 call about someone doused in petro, etc., and so on, don’t you think you’d be a tad “on edge”. We are doomed. . Not because of the police or America, but because of this knee-jerk reaction of looking for ‘justice’ when it is screaming at us all of the time.
I live here and am an American citizen. Everyone comes here for a better life. Many who were not born here achieve the American dream while those born here never get off their feet. It is the land of opportunity not stupidity.
Anonymous
Totally free. Lets see: if you are an american you can expect at any time to have your door broken, police invade your house and shoot you. But hey, you had the right to carry a gun and at least try to take one of those policeman with you. Too bad you chose to be unarmed and a normal human being.
…But I’m sure the whole world is wrong and overreacting. Its just an isolated case. The nth isolated case…
Rob
Because the police wake up bored and experience the urge to shoot someone. The police officer didn’t arrive at the victim’s home randomly, the swatter put him there. Grow up and understand responsibility and for that matter personal responsibility.
chez
Andrew Finch apparently only “appeared to moving his hand towards his waistband”. Maybe he felt his trousers were falling down and he moved sub-consciously but, up to that point, had been compliant with police requests. It does seem really extreme to shoot someone dead in a situation like this where SWATting is a known issue. Why not use a taser, cuffs or those restricters the airlines sometimes use. Then an innocent man would still be alive and his family would be saved from coming to terms with this.
David
Both the officer who pulled the trigger and Barriss need to be held responsible for their decisions and actions. Finch would still be alive if Barriss had not called 911 and lied, which was deliberate and malicious. He should bear the consequences. This is social engineering taken to the extreme.
Finch would also be alive if the officer had not shot him, which appears (from the limited information available to the public) to have involved poor training and/or judgement and delayed communication between the 911 center and field units. Law enforcement has a tough job and a great responsibility. I would not be too quick to judge or excuse their actions. All of the events created the perfect storm that ended a life. None of the contributing factors should be taken in isolation or dismissed lightly. Hopefully emergency response teams will learn from this and take steps to try to prevent it from happening again.