Kansas 'Swat' Perpetrator Charged; Faces 11 More Years in Prison (latimes.com)

Jail time looms for 25-year-old Tyler Barriss, whose fake call to Kansas police led to a fatal shooting:

• Barriss "was in a Wichita jail on Saturday," Reuters reported, and even his first court appearance Friday was a video appearance from jail.

• Barriss was charged with involuntary manslaughter, and if convicted "could face up to 11 years and three months in prison." He was also charged with making a false alarm, which is considered a felony. The District Attorney adds that others have also been identified as "potential suspects" in the case, but they're still deciding whether to charge them.

• Barriss' bond has been set at $500,000.

• Friday Barriss gave his first interview to a local news outlet -- from jail. "Of course, you know, I feel a little of remorse for what happened," he tells KWCH. "I never intended for anyone to get shot and killed. I don't think during any attempted swatting anyone's intentions are for someone to get shot and killed..."
  
  Asked about the call, Barriss acknowledged that "It hasn't just affected my life, it's affected someone's family too. Someone lost their life. I understand the magnitude of what happened. It's not just affecting me because I'm sitting in jail. I know who it has affected. I understand all of that."

• Barriss has also been charged in Calgary with public mischief, fraud and mischief for another false phone call, police said, though it's unlikely he'll ever be arrested unless he enters the country. Just six days before the fatal shooting, Barriss had made a nearly identical call to police officers in Canada, this time supplying the address of a well-known video gamer who livestreams on Twitch, and according to one eyewitness more than 20 police cars surrounded her apartment building for at least half an hour.

Comments

What did you THINK would happen?

[Anonymous Coward]

I never intended for anyone to get shot and killed. I don't think during any attempted swatting anyone's intentions are for someone to get shot and killed...

You called in a situation that led to the police sending in armed, trigger happy troops. These guys are under immense pressure, expecting to have to deal with hostages, armed kidnappers, and whatever else. What the hell did you think would happen - the police would knock on the door politely, walk in calmly, and sit down for some milk and cookies?

You didn't think. You just went and pulled the trigger, not caring about the potential consequences, acting like it was all a game.

Sure, the Kansas police bear a part of the burden - the training of their SWAT teams (and other SWAT teams around the country) is far too militaristic, and they call them out far too quickly (although in fairness, that's not always obvious until after the event.) But the bulk of the burden of this "incident" (for lack of a better term.. maybe "debacle"?) falls squarely upon the guy who made the false report, and the culture that considers SWATting to be a "harmless prank".

Maybe this will be a wake up call, and SWATting will cease to be a thing. But somehow, I doubt it.

Re:What did you THINK would happen?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's still obviously much more the police's fault than his. They straight up murdered someone without even giving him time to react. A judgement was made based on incomplete information and a person was executed. Police being willing to murder someone over mere suspicions is the real issue. This idiot prankster should be punished but the murder of this man is a symptom of the way police are trained/operate. Now, they are trying to displace responsibility and clean their hands. In the end, the prankster didn't pull the trigger and there is no reasonable world in which one should expect to be killed by police over a prank phone call.

Re:What did you THINK would happen?

[hairyfeet]

Please quit making excuses for those psychos, okay? Now when the guy walks out onto his porch and he is a fat guy wearing nothing but shorts and you are with 20 other guys, you are ALL wearing enough body armor to pass a Robocop look alike contest, are armed to the teeth with both lethal AND non lethal weaponry AND have bullet proof shields that can take a 12 gauge shot dead on and despite all that you feel so threatened by a fat guy in a pair of shorts you feel you have NO other option but lethal force? Your cowardly ass doesn't need to be doing that damned job!

I mean for fucks sake people the biggest gun one could possibly hide in those shorts still wouldn't have even scratched the paint on all that armor, yet despite outnumbering the guy 20 to 1, having armor and bulletproof shields AND enough firepower to rival most third world army battalions they STILL can't simply repeat a command or use a fucking taser or bean bag round? Really? Give me a fucking break! THIS, this right here, is what happens when you give a bunch of poorly trained yahoos army surplus hardware and if you can't keep your collective shit together despite having such a lopsided advantage and use one of the mountains of non lethal options at your dispoal? Then someone needs to call a spade a spade and tell these dumbasses to go into another kind of work, because they suck at their jobs worse than a porn star on a Bang bros set!

Re:What did you THINK would happen?

[samkass]

"Prankster"? That doesn't even begin to describe the act of getting armed police to think a life-or-death situation is going on, and that the perpetrators are your target. Even the best police occasionally make mistakes, and anyone who sets someone else up to be at the receiving end of a situation where deadly force is authorized has a reasonable chance of getting his target killed. The caller was the murderer and the police were his weapon, just as if he had hired a hit man.

Re:What did you THINK would happen?

[Anonymous Coward]

Swatting is just plain retarded, I don't understand how can someone find it a 'funny prank'. Everything has limits and you don't joke about life threatening situations or stuff that can cause harm to others. During my studies I managed to spend a couple summers in the U.S. and I had a great time with fellow students, but I never understood some of their pranks (albeit by far not as dangerous as swatting) - it just wasn't funny for me. To me as an outsider it seems more like a cultural thing - there are just too many individuals lacking discipline or common sense to understand where are the boundaries.

On the other hand American police is also world famous for employing some lethally dangerous morons. There just too many reports when innocent people were shot just because they made a bad move/reaction (maybe due to panic) when police guns were pointing at them. I don't think bulk of the burden is on the teenager - after all cops are individuals accountable for their own actions (they are not like a gun/knife operated by the teenager). They know swatting is happening, and they should keep that in mind while doing their job (sure, it makes it much harder, but deciding when to pull the trigger is the key of their training).

Re:What did you THINK would happen?

[johanw]

> Even the best police occasionally make mistakes

Yes, but with the US police "mistakes" seem to be the norm and it is news when one of their innocent victims does not even gets hurt.

Re:What did you THINK would happen?

[thegarbz]

the police would knock on the door politely, walk in calmly, and sit down for some milk and cookies?

Well yes, that's how hostage situations are diffused in much of the rest of the world. The fact that swatting is a thing just shows how fucked up your police are in the first place.

Re: What did you THINK would happen?

[Calydor]

Comparing it to hiring a hitman is actually the best analogy I've seen in all this mess.

If you hire a hitman, you are guilty of the murder. So is the hitman. You are BOTH guilty. In the same vein, both the *spits* prankster AND the officer who fired the killing shot are guilty.

Re: What did you THINK would happen?

[Anonymous Coward]

For murder there must be intent or premeditation.. I doubt the policeman knew he was sent to kill an innocent man. Manslaughter would be a more appropriate charge for him.

Re:What did you THINK would happen?

[drinkypoo]

But the bulk of the burden of this "incident" (for lack of a better term.. maybe "debacle"?) falls squarely upon the guy who made the false report,

Bull. Fucking. Shit. The bulk of the burden falls directly upon the cop who pulled the trigger. A lesser share of it goes to the piece of shit who called the cops. An even lesser share of it goes to the piece of shit who gave someone else's address when asked for his own. The cops were locked and loaded, the guy who called the cops pulled the trigger, but the guy who gave someone else's address to someone who wanted to have him killed pointed the gun.

But you can never, ever take the ultimate responsibility out of the shooter's hands. He has the ultimate responsibility to prevent an unwarranted shooting, whether he is a cop or not. Anyone who cannot handle that responsibility should be disarmed immediately. That goes with the territory.

Re:What did you THINK would happen?

[JaredOfEuropa]

Besides, at that point the guy coming out of his house is not a criminal, not a "perp", but a member of the public. They have no idea what the guy is up to or if he is even armed, and his live comes before those of the responding officers. If the guy makes what they think might be a threatening move, their option is to take cover, maybe tase him, not shoot first on assuming the worst case scenario.

Re:What did you THINK would happen?

[Biogoly]

Wish I had some mod points for ya. This Barris guy is an idiot and deserves jail time and monetary fines (which unfortunately will never be collected from his NEET ass), but he certainly is not a murderer. I'm completely gobsmacked by how many people are willing to defend these jackboot gestapo squads. I mean, this was a residential neighborhood in Kansas for chrissakes and they approached the situation like they were clearing a block in Fallujah. Did they even do a minute of surveillance?

Re: What did you THINK would happen?

[echnaton192]

Oh no. I agree, undertrained, underpaid and trigger-happy american police forces played a big role in this.

But this guy swatted multiple persons in multiple states! Even if our police is far less trigger happy, I am quite shure that you could get someone killed if you repeat the swatting often enough.

This guy played russian roulette with other peoples lives countless times.

- He should have been stopped long ago.
- Police should be able to detect spoofed or suppressed caller IDs.
- Police should de-escalate a hostage situation, not fire shots into unarmed people.

But this was murder: Not only did he know that the US police forces are badly trained and militarized, so he was able to see the danger he was putting his victims into. He did it repeatedly so even by european standards I would argue that eventually, he will get someone killed or badly injured.

He knew that but did not care - he even went to jail for swatting and continued. He knew of the danger. He did nothing to defuse the situation, he did everything to let the danger appear imminent. Now he got someone killed.

He is a murderer. No police failure could change that.

Re: What did you THINK would happen?

[Anonymous Coward]

He didn't make a 'prank call', stop calling it that. Read what he said to the emergency operators. He was convincing enough to get them to think this was a time critical situation. That they hadn't gotten time to ask around.

If someone call in a bomb threat and say that the bomb will detonate in 45 minutes and gives enough information so that everyone involved takes the threat is serious enough, you are not going to want the responders to take a few hours to get a second or third source to verify the threat. You want them to take it seriously enough to act right away.

Re:What did you THINK would happen?

[Anonymous Coward]

How many times has Barriss called in a fake emergency? How many time has someone gotten hurt? You are an idiot.

Re:What did you THINK would happen?

[hairyfeet]

And don't forget a modern SWAT unit has rubber bullets, bean bag rounds, tasers, flash bangs, they have tools up the ass that don't kill yet despite having more armor than a fricking knight AND shields that will take anything.he.could.possibly.be.carrying. their first reaction is to shoot the guy in the face?

They are either trigger happy killers or they are cowards, neither should be in law enforcement. I mean he has a pair of shorts, they have 20 to 1 numbers AND top to bottom armor...and they couldn't find anything less than a shot to the face a reasonable response? Really? The fact that anybody is sticking up for these clowns makes me want to puke, I don't care if the guy who called it in said he was Hannibal the cannibal there is NO EXCUSE for going lethal force in this situation, none!

Re:What did you THINK would happen?

[gnasher719]

It's still obviously much more the police's fault than his.

You're a fucking idiot. This brainless psychopath sat at home and decided to have fun by sending the police into a situation where the expected a dangerous armed person holding hostages. Without him doing this, the police would have stayed at their police station and nothing would have happened.

Re: What did you THINK would happen?

[drinkypoo]

But this guy swatted multiple persons in multiple states! Even if our police is far less trigger happy, I am quite shure that you could get someone killed if you repeat the swatting often enough.

Get someone killed? Yes. Kill someone? No.

He is a murderer. No police failure could change that.

No, he is not a murderer. He is an accomplice or accessory to murder. The cop who killed the victim is a murderer.

Re:What did you THINK would happen?

[Anonymous Coward]

There are nearly a million police officers in the US. How many of these sort of mistakes do you hear about every day? The number of officers making mistakes is a tiny fraction of 1%, and most of those officers making mistakes don't do it often. Yes there are bad apples out there, but the overwhelming majority of officers are not. And I would not say it is "the norm". If you say that, then you'd have to say that Americans killing/raping/robbing other Americans is "the norm" too. It's not. It's a fairly rare exception.

Re:What did you THINK would happen?

[drinkypoo]

OK, enough with the ignorance already. Every US military leader would not take kindly to being labeled a mass murderer,

...but most of them absolutely are, because they were not fighting a war to protect people, but to protect profits . Who gives a fuck how they feel about being called what they are? Ignorance is no excuse, either. It's your responsibility to do your homework before killing people.

Also intent matters, which is exactly why he's being charged with involuntary manslaughter and not murder.

That's wrong, though. His intent was to get someone killed. He should be charged with first-degree murder, since it was "willful and premeditated with malice aforethought." Or with being an accessory or accomplice to same, as I have argued, although I am fast coming around to the idea that the cop is the accomplice (and guilty of voluntary manslaughter) and the SWATter is the murderer in the first degree. He planned the murder (via SWAT team) and then carried it out. The only reason anyone SWATs anyone is because they know that it is dangerous, and that the danger goes up to and includes the death of the victim (and possibly innocent bystanders, maybe even babies.)

Re:What did you THINK would happen?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yet another "Bad Apple" apologist. You, and ever other person defending the cops no matter what, ALWAYS fall back on using the phrase "there's a few bad apples".

The complete saying is "A few bad apples spoil the barrel." The whole point is to recognize that one or two instances of rot will poison the whole thing. Great, there's some "bad apple" cops. GET RID OF THEM. VIGOROUSLY FIRE THEM. Those small handful of shitty officers have such an enormously-out sized negative effect on The People's respect for the rule of law that I can't find the words to describe it.

And for the love of god, stop defending them to the exclusion of logic and reason.

Re:What did you THINK would happen?

[Anonymous Coward]

Suppose that there is a real situation with a dangerous armed person holding hostages, and I call the police but there is a typo in the address that I give. Suppose that the police does their SWAT thing at this wrong address and kills someone innocent. Who's fault is it now?

Re: What did you THINK would happen?

[starblazer]

Well, if you point a gun at someone, then pull the trigger, that is premeditation.

Unless the SWAT officer left the station "OH BOY I GET TO KILL SOMEONE TODAY!!!!" it's not premeditation. They are trained to be quick with the trigger because if they aren't, they may be the ones dead. Add adrenaline and stress to the mix and the trigger finger may get a little too quick, which is what happened here.

... But, at the same time, there has to be the issue of the gun obsessed violent society.

That and the fact that the local police are becoming more militarized. I get it, Chicago may need a SWAT team or two, but podunkville police with a town population of 10k doesn't need an armored assault vehicle.

Re: What did you THINK would happen?

[arth1]

They are trained to be quick with the trigger because if they aren't, they may be the ones dead.

And that would not be a worse outcome than a dead innocent non-police.

Police, firemen and emergency medical personnel used to be expected to put themselves in harm's way to protect people. Protecting themselves was secondary to protecting innocents. They took oaths on doing so, and people were proud of them for it.
When did this change?

Re:What did you THINK would happen?

[Anonymous Coward]

The SWAT team was told not only that was there already a fatality and a hostage situation, but that the house had been doused in gasoline. So the fact that the victim answered the door in his shorts and apparently unarmed didn't eliminate the perceived danger.

They killed the hostage. In any reasonable police training exercise they would have been failed as shooting an unarmed person who answered the door. Do you know who is forced, at gunpoint, to answer the door unarmed in hostage situations? Hostages.

Rationalize and lie best you can. Those police have a murderer hiding behind the law and some of them know it.

Psychopath

[The Evil Atheist]

His earlier response shows he's a psychopath, so there' no doubt that he's only feeling remorseful "for the cameras", so to speak.

Re: Psychopath

[xenog]

Yes, this stood out for me too. The guy is a psychopath. I read some statements he posted anonymously previously, and his mind seems quite warped. He enjoys doing this, putting other people in dangerous situations. I think he wanted samebody to eventually get killed. That makes him a sadist. He is dangerous, and he'll still be dangerous when released from prison. He should remain under surveillance afterwards. These people do not think like regular people do. The way their minds work, they may just as well be another species.

One down, at least one to go

[bradley13]

Ok, so this douchebag will get what's coming to him. We're still missing at least one person, though: The cop who shot an innocent, unarmed person. You know, the guy who did the actual killing.

Re:Too harsh IMHO.

[vux984]

If you rob a 7-11 at gun point, and the clerk pulls a gun in self defense and accidently shoots a bystander, not only might you get charged with murder the clerk might not be.

If someone dies as a result of a crime you committed, you can be charged with murder.

In this case, the 'prank' was to commit a felony by intentionally reporting a false alarm. For the express purpose of having an armed force dispatched into a private residence, and to maximize their tension by leading them to believe they were likely going into an extremely volatile situation with an armed murderer.

"He didn't pull the trigger."

So fucking what? What's next? You'll be telling me that mafia bosses who send thugs to intimidate people aren't responsible for any injuries or deaths that result...

"a little of remorse"

[DrXym]

Throw this asshole in prison. He deserves the maximum sentence under law.

why isn't the SWAT team in jail as well?

[darkeye]

why isn't the SWAT team in jail as well? they killed an unarmed man for no reason.