Man Behind Fatal ‘Swatting’ Gets 20 Years
Summary: Tyler Barriss, a 26-year-old California man, was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison after admitting he made a phony emergency call from California to Wichita, Kansas, on Dec. 28, 2017, claiming he had shot his father and was holding family members hostage. Wichita officers responding to the address shot and killed 28-year-old Andrew Finch, a father of two, and Barriss also pleaded guilty to hoax bomb threats to FBI and FCC headquarters in Washington, D.C., plus swatting and bomb threat calls to emergency numbers in 17 states and Canada.
Why it matters: Barriss set the fatal call in motion after inserting himself in a dispute between two Call of Duty players, Casey Viner, 18, and Shane Gaskill, 20, who are still awaiting trial - and the officer who fired the shot was not charged, a decision the local district attorney made in April 2018.
Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗
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