California residents were given 20 years in prison for lethal rally

Telephone terrorism and jokes have already become real crimes that lead to injuries and even death. One of these "jokers" was sentenced to 20 years in prison, provided that the maximum penalty for a false police call is 10 years. But can the judge's severity stop the death prank?

Fatal prank

In the US, California resident Tyler Barris was sentenced to 20 years in prison for prank death. He called special forces to teach the gamer a lesson, and they took a random person by the thief and shot him, wrote 360tv.ru.

For a long time, Barris made false calls about bombs and traded in swatting (or swatting, from the abbreviation SWAT, Special Weapons Assault Team). This is a stalking tactic in which the attacker tricks the victim into calling the SWAT team to the victim's home, claiming that hostages are being held there.

Barris became a Swat professional and took other people's orders, setting the police at their enemies. In December, 2017 of the year was approached by a player in Call of Duty who wanted to take revenge on his abuser because of the loss of 1,5 dollars. The subsequent series of events led to the death of Andrew Finch - a man who happened to be on the "line of fire." You can find a detailed history of what happened here..

It all happened in 2017 year. A certain 19-year-old gamer had a row with his friend because of a loss in Call of Duty and a bet in 1,5 dollars. The guy asked Barris to take revenge on the offender and explained that he intended only to “scare” a friend.

Then Barris called the law enforcement authorities and called the SWAT squad using the address known to him. The young man introduced himself as the man who killed his father, took his mother hostage with his younger brother, and poured gasoline around the house, preparing to set fire to it.

When the police arrived, the door was opened by 28-year-old Andrew Finch - and right there was shot by a special forces officer, who decided that he was reaching for weapons. Later it turned out that this man is not a gamer at all and has no relation to history, and Barris called the old address of his goal, the Associated Press wrote.

During the trial, Barris apologized to the Finch family, stating that he takes full responsibility for what happened. “If I could bring it back, I would do it, but I can’t do anything about it,” said Barris.

After the death of Finch, Barris was arrested, however, he had called SWAT troops several dozen times before and was known “as a Twitter guy who is good at it.”

Tyler Barris pleaded guilty in November. The agreement provided for a sentence of at least 20 years in prison, despite the fact that anonymous calls punish 10 with years in prison. Prosecutors believe that this is the longest prison sentence in the history of punishment for reports of a false emergency. The judge said that in this situation the case had moved to “uncharted legal territory”, because the law did not catch up with the technology.

Barris's attorney Richard Federico called his client a loner, who "found solace in the gaming community" and became a "serial cheater." According to Federico, only people from the Internet were friends of the young man. His father died when Barris was still young, and his mother left him.

According to the sister of the deceased, Domenica Finch, Barris received the punishment he deserved. She also stated the need to bring to justice law enforcement officers who directly shot her brother. The Finch family has already filed a lawsuit against the city of Wichita. The police responded by saying that the special forces officer who had shot her brother thought that Finch was reaching for the pistol when he pulled his hand to his belt. As a result, the authorities dropped the charges against the police officer.

In addition to Barris, two gamers also appeared in court: 19-year-old Casey Wiener from Ohio and 20-year-old Shane Gaskill from Wichita. According to investigators, it was Wiener who recruited Barris. Gaskill - the intended purpose of the pranker. The latter noticed that Barris was interested in his life on Twitter, so the young man deliberately gave his old address, that “tease him”. The trial against them is still ongoing. They were accused of conspiring to obstruct justice, as well as fraud.

Andrew Finch. Photos from the personal archive of men

Swatting as a new threat

The FBI noted that Swatting came about in the 2008 year and is becoming an increasing threat.

“We hope that this will serve as a strong signal about swatting, which is a meaningless practice,” said lawyer Stephen McAllister, stressing that this is not a joke.

"Swatting" is a term that appeared relatively recently in the world. He describes a crime involving the false calling of SWAT units. This term is especially popular with gamers.

The case of Barris is not the first resonance story in the United States related to the swatting. In Oklahoma in 2012, an unknown person who introduced himself as Dallas Horton called the police and reported that there was a risk of an explosion at school. They did not find the bomb in the building, then the police went to the address of the house from which the bell was allegedly called and where Horton lives. When the police broke into him, he shot a police officer several times and hit him in the chest and arm. The law enforcement officer survived only because his colleagues insisted that he put on a bullet-proof vest before the assault on Horton’s house.

According to the police, on the door of Horton was written "certified zombie killer." According to MSNBC website, he was acquitted because he did not know that he had shot a police officer and did not make an anonymous call.

Reality game

Most swatting cases, although they are flagrant violations, do not lead to shooting and casualties. So it was 27 August 2014, when Jordan Mathewson was broadcasting on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on Twitch. One of the spectators called the police and announced that in the office where Mathewson worked, he heard shooting and there were taken hostages. As a result, the special forces broke into the office, threw Matthewson on the ground and searched.

The most interesting thing in this story is that the broadcast continued until the special forces blocked the cameras on the gamer's table. This video became viral and scored more than five million views on YouTube.

One teenager used Twitch to broadcast his practical jokes. A British Columbia teenager with a pseudonym, which can be translated as “intolerable” or “nasty”, was detained in December 2014 of the year after 40 swatting cases in different countries. He attacked girls who rejected his requests for friendship in the game of League of Legends and Twitter. He was broadcasting everything on Twitch. According to ArsTecnica, he pleaded guilty to 23 crimes.

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