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

Posted by EditorDavid on from the crime-doesn't-pay dept.

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

11 of 428 comments (clear)

  1. What did you THINK would happen? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:What did you THINK would happen? by hairyfeet · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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!

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    2. Re:What did you THINK would happen? by samkass · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "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.

      --
      E pluribus unum
    3. Re: What did you THINK would happen? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

    4. Re:What did you THINK would happen? by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    5. Re:What did you THINK would happen? by hairyfeet · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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!

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    6. Re: What did you THINK would happen? by bryanp · · Score: 5, Interesting

      No, this is not a good analogy. Swatting was recognized as a prank before this incident. And intent matters.

      Anyone who has ever thought of swatting as a prank is an idiot who should be removed from the gene pool.

      Intent matters you say? The intent of swatting is to send an armed force to someone's house, believing they may have to kill someone. Swatting needs to be stomped down on hard. Ruin some lives. Make an example of them. Make others think "Hmm, maybe I should just stick to posting shit on 4chan."

      --
      "An unarmed man can only flee from evil, and evil is not overcome by fleeing from it." Col. Jeff Cooper
    7. Re: What did you THINK would happen? by arth1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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?

    8. Re:What did you THINK would happen? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

  2. Psychopath by The+Evil+Atheist · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
    1. Re: Psychopath by xenog · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.