Late last year, an innocent man was killed when a false 911 call was made directing police to his residence. Shane Gaskill, in response to an argument in a game of Call of Duty, ended up giving another man Andrew Finch’s address as his own, thus sending a Wichita SWAT team to the door of Finch, where the man — who had done nothing wrong — was shot and killed. Now Gaskill, as well as several other gamers involved in the incident, could face life in prison if convicted of all of the crimes they’re facing.
As a reminder, swatting is a prank — with “prank” being used in the very loosest of terms — where the police are called to an unsuspecting residence. The caller makes up various falsehoods in order to provoke the largest police response possible, hoping to get a SWAT team involved, as the name implies. If you haven’t already figured it out by now, this is a horrible idea, and anybody doing this should have the book thrown at them, figuratively speaking. It’s entirely too easy for such an incident to end in tragedy, as happened in Wichita with Andrew Finch.
Now, the gamers involved in this incident are facing significant charges, and if convicted of all charges could easily face life in prison. Tyler Bariss faces the worst, as he was the one who made the call. Bariss faces charges including involuntary manslaughter, with false information and hoaxes, cyberstalking, threatening to kill another or damage property by fire, interstate threats, conspiracy and several counts of wire fraud. Casey Viner is charged with several counts of wire fraud, conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy to obstruct justice.was the one who enlisted Bariss’ help in initiating the SWAT. Gaskill is charged with several counts of obstruction of justice, wire fraud, and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Hopefully, these charges serve as a deterrent to any others thinking that swatting is a good idea. What do you think about the charges these gamers face? Should there be a stiffer penalty for this type of prank? Tell us what you think in the comment section below, or on Google+, Twitter, or Facebook.
[button link=”http://www.kansas.com/news/local/crime/article211760059.html” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: The Wichita Eagle[/button]
