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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.
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.
His earlier response shows he's a psychopath, so there' no doubt that he's only feeling remorseful "for the cameras", so to speak.
Those who do not learn from commit history are doomed to regress it.
As a European the sole focus on the author of the call is really stunning. Itâ(TM)s like itâ(TM)s only his fault and not in any way the fault of your police who tend to shoot way too many innocent people. EU has twice the number of inhabitant as the US and how many EU citizen get killed by the Police? For Germany it is 15x less. why? because in Europe police officer know that there will be consequences for killing an innocent citizen. In US most of the police officer just go away with it.
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.
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
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...
Throw this asshole in prison. He deserves the maximum sentence under law.
Share, hell. He is the sole killer.
You mentioned several important issues: 1) Police are sometimes "trigger happy troops". 2) Police are "under immense pressure". Yes! Difficult job. 3) "Kansas police ... training of ... SWAT teams ... is far too militaristic." 4) "... the bulk of the burden ... falls squarely upon the guy who made the false report..."
There are other issues. Putting someone in prison for years: 1) Damages that person mentally and increases the mental disturbance they have when they enter prison. 2) Costs taxpayers HUGE amounts of money. The government should be required to post on a web site the cost to taxpayers of keeping each prisoner in prison. 3) When the prisoner is released, he or she is usually less likely to be able to lead a healthy life.
Norway is rehabilitative, not destructive, to those who commit crimes. Michael Moore's film, Where to Invade Next explored the system in Norway, and prompted articles like this one: Why Norway's prison system is so successful. Quote from that article: "... when criminals in Norway leave prison, they stay out. It has one of the lowest recidivism rates in the world at 20%. The US has one of the highest: 76.6% of prisoners are re-arrested within five years."
Being destructive to those who commit crimes is another crime, a crime committed by the government.
The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime lists other issues.
To add another source for the attempted swat in Calgary.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada...
One has to wonder what would happen if he wound up facing a crown prosecutor in Calgary. I'm just curious how many charges he would be hit with under the Criminal Code of Canada.
I believe he would be busted if he tried doing either land air or sea to get into this country.
The caller was the murderer and the police were his weapon, just as if he had hired a hit man.
If police are just a weapon, then we should get rid of them. Police should be thinking professionals who protect the public, not shoot the public because someone on the phone told them to. They should know what swatting is, act accordingly. At least that is how I think I should be spending my tax dollars.
What the fuck is wrong with you? you seriously think that someone that intentionally endangers peoples lives to the point they are killed doesn't deserve to be charged? this cunt is getting off way to light with manslaughter, you never point a gun at anyone as the consequences can be serious, this cunt pointed a whole SWAT team of guns at someone MULTIPLE times, eventually someone was going to die and it is HIS FAULT. He should be on trial for murder not manslaughter.
He was outside, alone, surrounded by 20 armed officers, all of whom were behind car doors, wearing body armor, at distance. In the half a second it would have taken to confirm if he had a gun, he could have killed.. let's see here... yeah, ZERO people. Reflect on that jackass. Not being sure goes way beyond a mistake, it's straight up murder.
on how the person in his own home was killed by the police. Encounters with police in America are too often fatal. The rules of engagement needs to be changed to reduce the risk of killing civilians.
It could have been a hostage sent to open the door. So yes, they have killed an unarmed man for no reason.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
Then shooting to kill was still an asinine idea, if he was holding a dead mans switch. Just another bullshit excuse for trigger happy cops.
Not at range at armored cops with bulletproof shields.
Trying to pretend there was any justification for this shooting is willful authoritarian dumbfuckery. For all the cop knew the man walking out and complying with instructions was a hostage.
Everyone involved should be changed that includes the idiot who gave the swatter someone eases address.and never notified the cops. that jackass is just as guilty as the swatter IMO. Sad part is the cops are nothing more then over paid meter maids to give out traffic tickets to fill county coffers. How the hell does a spoofed call warrant a swat call??????????? send a squad car do some actual police work..
Jack of all trades,master of none
The manslaughter charge is actually under charging the swatting perpetrator. A more reasonable charge would be negligent homicide or Murder 2. If suicide by cop is a thing, swatting is essentially murder by cop or attempted murder, depending. It is equivalent in culpability to putting on a blindfold and firing into a crowded street. You are not trying to kill anyone by aiming at them, but by taking those actions, any reasonable person can assume that someone is likely to be killed. Much like a gun, police officers responding to active shooter/hostage situations can be counted on to act a specific way, and like a gun they are deadly in their intent.
Manslaughter is more along the lines of a bar fight where you are both equally responsible for starting the altercation, but the other guy has a bad heart and dies during the fight. You didn't mean to kill the guy and his death was not an expected outcome of some drunken fisticuffs.
Cops are trained to behave a certain way when responding to a violent felony/murder/hostage situation. They are keyed up expecting to be facing an armed person who just killed an innocent victim and is likely to do so again at a moments notice. They are still imperfect humans that make mistakes of a fraction of a second, and the fact that an innocent person was killed in this case is a tragedy that that police officer will have to live with for the rest of his life.
All the pinheads saying the cop is a murderer need to look up the definition of murder, namely, that the perpetrator needs malicious intent specifically against the victim. The cop who fatally shot the victim never laid eyes on him before that moment and by definition harbored no ill will against him, it was the victims bad luck that he made some sudden move, innocent though it may have actually been, that caused the officer to shoot, expecting to protect innocent lives and/or his fellow officers from what he understood to be an armed murderer.
I hope the swatting perpetrator gets a very public trial and gets the maximum sentence as well as a civil suit that takes every penny he ever makes. Swatting as a practice needs to be severely punished and treated as attempted murder with every incident and investigated both locally and by the FBI. A few more cases like this and we might actually get some investment in proper infrastructure that eliminates spoofing caller IDs (all emergency lines should be able to trace the call back to a house number, IP phones should either be blocked from emergency services, or require a credit card/drivers license pre-authentication to a physical address to access emergency numbers over VOIP). Sure, there will still be a few hundred people on the planet who can place emergency calls anonymously, but no system is perfect, the perpetrator in this case certainly is no hacking genius.
If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like
Amazing how he suddenly acts like he has remorse and a moral conscience now that he's facing significant consequences. This is the same person who very publicly announced how hilarious it was the man died, how him swatting left no responsibility of the mans death on his shoulders, that he had a right to do such things because he was a 'leet untouchable hacker', that he was obligated to severely punish people playing a video game of all things if they slighted him. Over the course of several years he called in multiple swatting and bomb threats to private companies, public events, schools and more because it was 'fun'. The things he's saying now are purely in the hope of reducing the punishments he is about to receive. I hope no one is gullible enough to buy his charade.