Just days before Christmas, a Calgary woman’s apartment was surrounded by tactical units with guns drawn. Responding to a realistic-sounding 911 call, Calgary police believed a man had been shot and two others were being held hostage in the home.

A week later, an unarmed Kansas man was shot dead on his porch after a bogus emergency call about a hostage-taking prompted police to surround his house in Wichita.

Not only were both incidents cases of “swatting” – a hoax designed to get a police SWAT team to respond to fake emergency calls about a gunman or a bomb – they were allegedly perpetrated by the same California man.

Calgary police said Tuesday they have charged Tyler Raj Barriss, 25, of Los Angeles, with mischief and fraud charges following the incident on Dec. 22 that saw officers along with police dogs surround the unnamed woman’s apartment. Police revealed few other details but said investigators identified a suspect who had made contact online with the woman earlier that day and that she was targeted because of her “online persona.”

Mr. Barriss is being held without bail in Los Angeles in connection with the hoax emergency call that resulted in the fatal police shooting in Kansas on Dec. 28. Police say Andrew Finch, 28, moved his hands toward his waist when he was killed.

Mr. Barriss has an alleged history of making bogus calls to authorities.

In the Calgary case, no one was hurt. But police warn the increase they are seeing in swatting calls puts everyone in danger.

“It’s very frustrating because we have to take these calls seriously, we have to take them at face value,” said Calgary Police Service Acting Deputy Inspector Peter Siegenthaler. “It puts not just officers, but the public at risk.”

On the evening of Dec. 22, Calgary 911 received a call from a man who claimed he had shot his father and was holding his mother and younger brother hostage, and giving an address in Calgary’s Bankview neighbourhood. Officers from patrol and the tactical unit were dispatched to the low-rise apartment building and began evacuating other units.

At about the same time, the woman had been warned by an “online colleague or friend” about the swatting hoax, Deputy Insp. Siegenthaler said. She called 911 herself and, as she exited her apartment, police confirmed there was no shooting or hostage situation.

“Anyone can make these calls. You don’t have to be very sophisticated,” Deputy Insp. Siegenthaler said. “We know that swatters can be teenagers in their bedroom making a swatting call while Mom and Dad watch TV.”

The hoax call that resulted in the fatal police shooting in Kansas reportedly was made after a dispute over a small wager online in a Call of Duty online video game tournament, according to Dexerto, a news service focused on gaming. However, the mother of the victim has said Mr. Finch was not a video game player.

Last week, Mr. Barriss told a Los Angeles Superior Court judge he would not fight efforts to send him to Wichita to face charges.

He has been charged in Kansas with making a false alarm, according to court documents. The charge for calling police or a fire department and knowingly giving false information is a low-level felony in Kansas that carries a maximum of 34 months in prison.

He is next scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 17.

Mr. Barriss was released from the Los Angeles county jail last year after serving less than half of a two-year, eight-month sentence for phoning in two fake bomb threats in 2015 that cleared out ABC Studios in Glendale, Calif., just north of Los Angeles.

Glendale police said at the time that Mr. Barriss lived with his grandmother and was unemployed. There was no evidence to indicate that he would have actually carried out those threats.

Investigators later connected him to about 20 other alleged incidents involving bogus phoned-in threats to universities and media outlets, said Glendale Police spokesman Sergeant Dan Suttles.

With files from Andrea Woo and The Associated Press

By Tribune News Service

WICHITA, Kan. — The California man arrested in connection with a fatal swatting incident in Wichita has also been charged for a similar hoax in Canada earlier in December.

Tyler Barriss, 25, who is awaiting extradition to Kansas, is accused of calling 911 in Calgary, Alberta, on Dec. 22, claiming that he had shot his father and was holding his mother and younger brother hostage, the CBC reported.

As officers on the scene attempted to confirm the reported information, 911 received a call from a woman at the address who said she suspected she was the victim of a swatting call, according to a statement released by Calgary police. The woman walked out of her house and police were able to confirm the call was false. No one was hurt.

Barriss has been charged with public mischief, fraud and mischief in connection with the incident. But he will face charges in Kansas first.

Barriss was charged in Wichita on Dec. 29 with the felony of making a false alarm.

Barriss is accused of reporting a fake homicide and hostage situation to the Wichita Police Department just after 6:15 p.m. on Dec. 28. The “crime” he reported in Wichita mirrored what was reported in Calgary.

Reports say Barriss was called by someone after a feud between two Call of Duty players broke out over a virtual “friendly kill” during a game earlier that day. There was a $1.50 wager over the game.

One of the players allegedly called Barriss and requested he “swat” another player. A man claiming he was responsible for the swatting said he was given an address on McCormick Street by another player, he said during an interview with the DramaAlert channel on YouTube.

Swatting is the term when someone calls police with a fake story of a serious ongoing crime — like a killing, hostage situation or bomb threat — in an effort to draw a large police presence to an address. It has gained traction in recent years among online gamers.

Police went to the address, expecting to find a homicide victim and two hostages. Instead, Andrew Finch, 28, opened his front door when he saw police lights outside and didn’t know why. Wichita police say he was given commands to keep his hands raised, but he reached toward his waistline multiple times.

When he reached his hands up suddenly, police say an officer who was standing in a driveway across the street from Finch shot him.

—The Wichita Eagle

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Scalise to undergo planned surgery related to baseball shooting

WASHINGTON — House Majority Whip Steve Scalise will undergo a planned surgery Wednesday as part of his recovery from injuries sustained last June from a shooting at a GOP congressional baseball team practice.

The Louisiana congressman missed more than three months last year after a gunman opened fire on Republican lawmakers in Alexandria, Va., on the eve of the annual Congressional Baseball game.

Scalise suffered severe internal organ damage when a bullet tore through his hip as he fled to right field.

He returned to Congress in a wheelchair in September but has recently been seen walking around the Capitol on crutches.

“I have been fortunate to make tremendous progress in my healing from last June’s shooting, and tomorrow I will undergo a planned surgery as part of my ongoing recovery process,” Scalise said in a statement Tuesday. “I am incredibly humbled by the outpouring of support and prayers I have received from friends and neighbors in southeast Louisiana, my colleagues in Congress, and wonderful people from all across the country.”

He also thanked his medical team for its care.

It is unclear when Scalise will return to the Capitol after Wednesday’s operation.

—CQ-Roll Call

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ACLU wants Kansas secretary of state held in contempt, says he disregarded court order

The American Civil Liberties Union wants Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach held in contempt of court, arguing he disregarded a court order to register voters.

The ACLU filed court documents late Monday seeking a contempt order, or asking a judge to order Kobach to update election procedures to make clear that those seeking to register to vote in federal elections at Department of Motor Vehicle locations are exempt from a Kansas law that requires proof of citizenship to register.

The ACLU says Kobach, who is running for governor, is refusing to correct errors in his manual for local election officials and is not ensuring that voters who register at DMV sites in accordance with an earlier court order are receiving certificates of registration saying they can vote.

“These violations could be cured easily. … Yet, despite numerous efforts by Plaintiffs over the past six months to obtain Defendant’s compliance, Defendant has refused, and has stated that he will not take corrective action even if final judgment is rendered against him after trial,” an ACLU court filing says.

A Kobach spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The Eagle first saw the documents just before 10 p.m.

“My objective … is to make it easy to vote but hard to cheat,” Kobach said in September. “Those are completely compatible goals.”

The filings came in a lawsuit challenging a Kansas law that requires voters to provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote. A federal judge has already effectively suspended the requirement for individuals who want to vote in federal elections.

—The Wichita Eagle

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Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

On December 28, Andrew Finch was shot and killed in Wichita, Kansas due to a hoax that went too far. Swatting is the act of calling in hostage situations and other threats on people and is–as much as I hate to say it–popular with some of the seedier sides of the gaming community. In this case, Tyler Barriss called in a false murder and hostage situation to a random address in Wichita over a Call of Duty match that he wasn’t even a part of. He was contacted by one player, who had gotten an incorrect address from the other player.

Barriss called in the hoax to Wichita police which resulted in an innocent and unarmed man being killed by police officers when they arrived and he answered the door. Barriss was arrested the following day. Now he may face felony charges for the wrongful death. The warrant filed in Kansas says that Barriss is charged with raising a false alarm, which is a felony that carries a penalty of up to 34 months in prison, though the state may decide to file additional charges after reviewing the case.

The most serious charge he could be brought up on would be second degree murder, which carries a 20 year sentence. If they settle for involuntary manslaughter, that could result in a maximum prison time of about 10 years. Barriss is being extradited from Los Angeles where he resides, to Kansas. The Kansas authorities must pick up Barriss by February 2.

Barriss is no stranger to the prison system or calling in false threats. In 2015, he called in bomb threats to a California TV station twice. In May 2016, he was sentenced to two years. He got out in January of 2017 and was quickly picked up again for violating a protective order that same month. He was sentenced to another year in prison, and again got out early on August 24, 2017.

During the month of December, Barriss used his Twitter profile “SWAuTistic” to claim responsibility for numerous bomb threats, including the Call of Duty World League competition in Dallas, and the Net Neutraility meeting that was held by the FCC. He was quite smug about his victories, tweeting “l swatted FCC and MLG Dallas l’m not busted yet. if you can’t pull off a swat without getting busted you’re not a leet hacking God its that simple.”

Brian Krebs, or Krebs On Security, reports that Barriss is a notorious swatter that has called in a lot of false threats, calling him a “serial swatter.” In an interview with YouTuber KeemStar, Barriss was completely unapologetic, saying “it is what it is,” and claiming that he doesn’t believe the death was his fault.

I don’t think that I should not do jail time, but I don’t think I should do life or get charged with murder, that’s all. I’m not saying that I’m saying I shouldn’t do any time at all though, because admittedly yeah I was involved. So if I get caught and charged, then so be it, and I’ll do whatever time they give me. I’ll serve whatever sentence because it is what it is.

At this time, it seems that the only charges being filed against Barriss are those in relation to the swatting death of Andrew Finch.  It doesn’t appear that any charges have been filed for the other bomb threats that were made in December.

[Source: TIME, The Daily Beast]

The man arrested in connection with the Wichita case, Tyler R. Barriss, 25, was a known swatter. He was sentenced to two years in a California jail for phoning in false bomb threats in 2015 to the ABC Studios in Glendale, prompting an evacuation and a search with police dogs. He was released from jail in August, after serving another sentence for violating a protection order.

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Mr. Finch’s mother, Lisa Finch, said in an interview on Sunday that both the officer who fired the shot and the swatter who lied to police should be charged with murder for her son’s death.

“I think the whole city government should be held accountable,” Ms. Finch said. “Don’t they do training for swat incidences?”

Ms. Finch said her son, who worked at a fast-food restaurant, had been using his phone in the living room on Thursday evening when he heard noises outside and went to investigate.

“He was looking to protect this place,” Ms. Finch said. “He took such good care of family.”

But unbeknown to Mr. Finch, Wichita police officers were staking out the home thinking there was a hostage situation underway. Body-camera footage released by the department shows Mr. Finch appearing in the doorway, officers yelling commands from a distance and, moments later, the pop of a single gunshot fired by a seven-year veteran of the Wichita police force.

“My son would have not opened the door had he known there were cops out there,” Ms. Finch said. “Not one time did they announce themselves. Not one time.”

Chief Livingston said Mr. Finch, who was unarmed and apparently not the intended target of the online prank, did not immediately comply with officers’ commands and moved his hands to his waistline, leading one officer to fear he had drawn a weapon.

State and local authorities are investigating the shooting, but police officers are seldom charged for on-duty shootings.

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The law allows the police to use deadly force when an officer reasonably believes, given the information at the time he pulls the trigger, that his life or someone else’s life is in imminent danger. The Wichita officers had been told, wrongly, that they were encountering an armed hostage-taker who had already killed one person and was threatening to burn the house down.

“Nine-one-one is based on the premise of believing the caller: When you call for help, you’re going to get help,” Chief Livingston said. The prank call, he added, “only heightened the awareness of the officers and, we think, led to this deadly encounter.”

It remained unclear on Sunday what charges Mr. Barriss, who was being held without bail in California, might face for his alleged role in the incident. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department listed his charge level as a felony, but spokesmen for the Wichita and Los Angeles police departments declined to detail the charges against him.

Swattings can be difficult to investigate. The perpetrators often operate in dark corners of the web, hiding their identities and sowing mayhem across state lines and even national borders. In past nonfatal swattings, suspects have been charged and convicted in federal court with crimes such as conspiracy to provide false information, which can lead to up to five years in federal prison, and false information and hoaxes, which has a maximum sentence of life in prison if a death results.

A bill introduced in Congress in 2017 by Representative Katherine Clark, Democrat of Massachusetts, would specifically outlaw interstate swatting and impose a maximum sentence of life in prison for fatal instances.

Swatting is rare in Kansas — Chief Livingston said he was not aware of another instance in Wichita, the state’s largest city — and it was not clear what state laws might also apply.

Jean Phillips, a clinical professor of law at the University of Kansas, said she was “sort of perplexed, at least under Kansas law, as to what would happen.” If prosecutors pursue a second-degree murder case against a swatter in state court, she said, the charge could be undermined if the officer’s decision to shoot is deemed lawful.

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“I assume that the state is going to try to go after something that’s more than a year or two in prison or probation, because they do have a death,” said Ms. Phillips, a criminal defense lawyer in Kansas for more than 25 years. “I’m not sure how they’re going to get there.”

As Mr. Barriss spent the weekend awaiting extradition proceedings in California, a process that could take days or weeks, a digital trail of what led to the deadly encounter on Thursday began to crystallize.

Several video game players and online news outlets posted screenshots and tweets that they said showed an argument about a petty wager over an online round of the game “Call of Duty.” The screenshots suggested that one person threatened to orchestrate the swatting of an opposing player, and that the opposing gamer egged him on and sent a random address in Wichita that he falsely claimed was his own.

Soon thereafter, a distraught-sounding man called the security desk at Wichita City Hall and gave that address — the Finch family home — to report the fake hostage situation, according to an audio recording of the 911 call released by the police department.

Hours after the shooting, a man claiming to be the swatter called into a popular YouTube program on gaming and online culture, and was interviewed by the host, Daniel Keem, known as Keemstar.

The man claiming responsibility did not give his name, but his voice sounded similar to the one in the 911 recording. After the arrest was announced, Mr. Keem said that he believed the person he spoke with was Mr. Barriss.

Mr. Keem’s interviewee sounded ambivalent about his complicity in Mr. Finch’s death.

“Yeah, the call was made by me,” the man said. “But as far as the whole incident, you could point the finger at numerous people. You could point the finger at the cop who killed someone.”

Continue reading the main story

Online gamers have said in multiple Twitter posts that the shooting of a man Thursday night by Wichita police was the result of a “swatting” hoax involving two gamers.

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Swatting happened when someone makes a call to a police department with a false story of an ongoing crime – often with killing or hostages involved – in an attempt to draw a large number of police officers to a particular address.

Swatting has gained traction across the country with online gamers. Those who try to cause the swatting incident will use caller ID spoofing or other techniques to disguise their number as being local. Or they call local non-emergency numbers instead of 911, according to 911.gov.

Deputy Wichita Police Chief Troy Livingston said Thursday night that police were looking into whether the call that led to the shooting was a case of swatting.

Livingston said the department received a call that someone had an argument with their mother, that the father had been shot in the head and the shooter was holding his mother, brother and sister hostage.

“That was the information we were working off of,” he said.

Officers went to the 1000 block of McCormick, preparing for a hostage situation and they “got into position,” he said.

“A male came to the front door,” Livingston said. “As he came to the front door, one of our officers discharged his weapon.”

Livingston didn’t say if the man, who was 28, had a weapon when he came to the door, or what caused the officer to shoot the man. Police don’t think the man fired at officers, but the incident is still under investigation, he said. The man, who has not been identified by police, died at a local hospital.

A family member identified that man who was shot by police as Andrew Finch. One of Finch’s cousins said Finch didn’t play video games.

“This call was little peculiar for us,” Livingston said. “(The call) went to a substation first, then it was relayed to dispatch, then dispatch gave it to us. We have a lot of information to go through.”

On Twitter, more than a dozen people who identified themselves as being in the gaming community told The Eagle that a feud between two Call of Duty players sparked one to initiate a “swatting” call.

After news began to spread about what happened Thursday night, the people in the gaming community, through Twitter posts, pointed at two gamers.

“I DIDNT GET ANYONE KILLED BECAUSE I DIDNT DISCHARGE A WEAPON AND BEING A SWAT MEMBER ISNT MY PROFESSION,” said one gamer, who others said made the swatting call. His account was suspended overnight.

According to posts on Twitter, two gamers were arguing when one threatened to target the other with a swatting call. The person who was the target of the swatting gave the other gamer a false address, which sent police to a nearby home instead of his own, according to Twitter posts.

The person who was to be the target of the swatting sent a Tweet saying, “Someone tried to swat me and got an innocent man killed.”

Livingston, the deputy police chief, would only provide the block number of the home where the shooting occurred, not the specific address. Police were seen in the front yards of two houses across from each other at the corner of Seneca and McCormick.

Dexerto, a online news service focused on gaming and the Call of Duty game, reported the argument began over a $1 or $2 wager over the game.

“Normally this is a prank, but due to the high stress situation, sometimes it is closer to a death threat from a user trying to get cops to kill them,” one man told The Eagle in an email.

The officer who fired the shot — a seven-year veteran of the police department — will be placed on administrative paid leave, which is department policy.

Police expect to release more information later Friday.