Maybe this is well known and I’m just now hearing about it, but fucking hell…
I don’t even know what to make of this. It’s just disgusting.
For those not clicking on the OP’s link…
Two people got into some sort of argument, possibly over a small bet, while playing an online game. One person made a threat. The other provided a fake address, as if challenging the first to come over and act on the threat. And idiot #1 instead made a fake emergency called claiming that a shooting had occurred at the fake address provided by idiot #2 and said there was a continuing hostage situation. A police SWAT team responded to the provided address and an innocent man, a father of two who lived at that address, was shot and killed by the police.
As a supervisor in a 911 center this was topic #1 today for my shift. It is sad, but people do try to make hoax calls of varying levels of severity. We must be suspicious if something does not seem right. And yet we must initiate emergency response as if the call is real. Just be sure to let the police know that your bullshit detector is going off and why.
Usually the media laughs at stories of 911 abuse when someone calls 911 for some random reason such as not liking their Chinese food. But far more often it is not a laughing matter. In this instance it is absolutely tragic.
They’ve arrested Tyler Raj Bariss (Swautistic) who apparently has a history of doing this, but so far I haven’t seen identified the person who asked Barris to make the fake call to Wichita police.
even worse, his twitter handle was capitalized “SWAuTistic.” Although I can’t see how autism would explain this degree of behavior. if the tweets which have been publicized are really his, he actually seems proud of his actions.
Yes, it’s disgusting (and dangerous and freaking psychopathic and a whole bunch of other things that aren’t complimentary or pleasant), but it’s not new. The term itself is at least 10 years old and I’m pretty sure I recall hearing about incidents from further back than that within the gaming community.
It’s like some jackass thought “oh, doxing is SO passive; how can I really make something happen?”
Let’s not forget that the police killed this guy just for answering his door. He was unarmed, had no idea what was going on, and the police had no observable evidence of a crime occurring. They are just as guilty as the dipshit swatter who started this.
Unfortunately, “swatting” is not a new thing. It’s been going on for at least a decade.
While the people who do this deserve to be arrested and severely punished we shouldn’t ignore another issue; this wouldn’t be happening if we didn’t have a lot of police out there who will rush in shooting at a location where no crime is occurring.
Swautistic’s position apparently is that because he didn’t literally fire the gun himself, he bears no responsibility for the death.
This almost needs a thread of its own. I have been discussing this with my wife and I don’t really know where I come down on it. If you are a cop dispatched to a door where you believe an armed lunatic who’s already killed someone and threatening to kill more will answer, well you are going to be twitchy.
If the victim had better followed the cops demands this might not have happened. But I’m sure he was confused as hell. Surely there must be a protocol for cops to prevent this type of thing. So confusing.
The caller of the fake alert should be charged with some kind of murder (the kind that isn’t intentional, but what you did ended in killing anyways – manslaughter?). The police, however bad their actions were, were nonetheless used as a kind of weapon.
Except it also seems to be well-established that “SWATting” is a real thing that’s been happening at least for ten years. The police sent to answer a 911 call have to take that possibility into account as well.
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The police weren’t used as a weapon, the prankster didn’t do a swatting in order to get someone killed. The idea behind swatting is to really hassle/embarrass someone. It’s a terrible awful prank that should result in severe criminal charges, but it’s not like hiring an assassin. I’m not at all excusing the swatter, but just because his actions were very bad doesn’t mean that the police department’s actions weren’t also very bad.
And like others said, swatting has been around for years, and police departments should be trained for that possibility. And even if swatting didn’t exist, it is possible for police to end up at the wrong house accidentally, or for an innocent hostage or someone to have answered the door.
It’s true that the murdered man should have raised his hands, but the price for mishearing or your arm lowering should not be death.
Police were going off what they believed at the time to be a real call; one where the caller stated he shot & killed his father. Further, he stated he was holding his Mom & sibling at gunpoint in a closet & had supposedly poured gasoline all over the house & was prepared to light it. They thought they had a witness/participant statement as to what was going on.
There are types of crimes that would cover this on some jurisdictions.
For example, manslaughter or negligent homicide doesn’t require specific intent to kill.
Police should always proceed with the possibility that they have been given falsified or inaccurate information. The possibility of mistake should be baked into their procedures.
Celebrities were getting swatted a few years ago. I recall several news stories about it.
This article summarizes six incidents. Thankfully no one got hurt.
I think there were more after this article was published.
https://www.google.com/amp/news.radio.com/2015/03/11/swatting-hoax-celebrities/amp/
Considering the detail into which he went with the false 911 call, and that he apparently tried to do this before with a bomb threat in Glendale, this is at least felony reckless endangerment, and the family should file a wrongful death civil suit to get whatever little this shit bag probably has.
In this particular case the police overreacted, but that this seems to be the first fatality shows that in general they don’t.
And what if the victim is a guy with lots of guns in the house. Since he has done nothing wrong, when a bunch of armed people show up, maybe he thinks it is a home invasion in costume and starts shooting?
This pulls cops away from somewhere they may really be needed. And it puts the lives of cops at risk, since responding at high speed is inherently dangerous.
Throw the bastard in jail. Hell, beat the shit out of him and put the pictures on the web. Maybe it will show that this is not an amusing thing to do.
If its felony reckless endangerment does that trigger the felony murder rule?
Yes, exactly. And if they get twitchy in circumstances like this then they’re not qualified for the job.