The lights are on
Tyler Barriss, who goes by the handle "SWAuTistic" online, has been charged with a felony count of false alarm for his role in the police shooting of Andrew Finch after a Call of Duty argument.
The charge, which is a result of Bariss calling in a fake hostage situation to Wichita, Kansas police from his home in Los Angeles, California, has Bariss declared a fugitive. He stood in court in Los Angeles today where he confirmed that he was the man being charged in Kansas and would not fight extradition to Kansas.
At the moment, Bariss is only being charged with giving false information when making a police or fire department call, but could be brought up on greater charges when brought to Wichita. Such charges, if they're decided to be appropriate, would come after police have finished their investigation and prosecutors have reviewed it.
As part of the court proceedings, it was revealed that Barriss was convicted in 2016 for activities related to Swatting and bomb threats. He was released early in January 2017, only to be arrested again for violating a protective order that same month. Barriss pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a full year in prison, but was released early again in August 2017. Barriss made the phone call that got Andrew Finch killed when he was supposed to be in prison on December 28.
The head of the Wichita Police Department has confirmed that the city has no official policy on swatting calls.
[Source: TIME and The Daily Beast]
Email the author Imran Khan, or follow on Twitter, and Game Informer.
Good. We can argue till we are blue in the face about whether the police over reacted when they shot the guy and what not, but that doesnt change the fact that swatting is terrible, puts people at risk and quite frankly should be prosecuted rather strongly.
Good.
Throw the book at him. I don’t really understand the intricacies of swatting, but I think it’s really dumb that it’s a thing for one and really really stupid to do just because you lost a game.
Good. Thanks for hurting our image as gamers even more you piece of s*t.
Give him the death penalty so maybe.. Just maybe others might think twice about doing this kind of crap.
Some may disagree with my opinion. That's fine. An innocent gamer was killed because some idiot had a temper tantrum and thought it'd be funny to pull this. Defend him all you want. I would still click on an article documenting his execution.
It just boggles my mind that someone would be arrested multiple times and continue to risk arrest for something so petty. It's obvious he never learned his lesson, hopefully he gets punished by the full extent of the law.
They need to try people who do this with attempted murder
The hell with him, that *** can rot.
swatting happens ALL the time too. There are compilation videos on youtube and a lot of these stupid kids find it hilarious.
Charge him with manslaughter
Dude needs some real time, clearly. A genuine scumbag.
Charge him for Manslaughter, Exploit in Federal Resources, and so much more. Shouldn't be a slap on the wrist, should be so much more just so he can feel the weight of all the wrong he did.
Hope they throw the book at him. Piece of filth doesn't deserve anything less.