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Gamers Involved In Fatal Wichita 'Swatting' Indicted On Federal Charges (kansas.com)
bricko shares a report from Kansas: A federal grand jury has indicted the man accused in Wichita's fatal swatting as well as the two gamers involved in the video game dispute that prompted the false emergency call. The 29-page indictment was unsealed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas. It charges 25-year-old Tyler Barriss, who is facing state court charges including involuntary manslaughter, with false information and hoaxes, cyberstalking, threatening to kill another or damage property by fire, interstate threats, conspiracy and several counts of wire fraud, according to federal court records. One of the gamers -- 18-year-old Casey S. Viner of North College Hill, Ohio -- is charged with several counts of wire fraud, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice. The other gamer -- 19-year-old Shane M. Gaskill of Wichita -- is charged with several counts of obstruction of justice, wire fraud and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
UPDATE (5/26/18): Both Barriss and Viner are now facing life in prison.
UPDATE (5/26/18): Both Barriss and Viner are now facing life in prison.
Their actions caused someone's death.
So everyone gets charged except for the cop that actually killed a man? That seems a huge lapse of justice.
Shouldn't they ALSO be held accountable for showing up at a house and killing someone who WASN'T ARMED? Isn't that manslaughter? I hate the double-standard.
LOAD "SIG",8,1
LOADING...
READY.
RUN
No, weâ(TM)re saying that calling armed cops who have been told that there is an active danger at a location is inherently dangerous. Thatâ(TM)s a very different thing.
Hopefully someone finally starts to sort out the cultural problem the US police has too.
Indeed. Canadian police vs known terrorist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
US police vs unarmed man pleading for his life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Stark contrast.
I yell "fire" in a packed room and people get trampled to death in a mass panic.
Not my fault at all, it was those shitty people who panicked and trampled the victims to death.
DA on the "cop that shot the guy":
"Bennett said he had to make a determination based on Kansas law and law handed down by the Supreme Court, which says that when determining if an officer acted reasonably, evidence has to be reviewed based on what the officer knew at the time of the shooting, not 20/20 hindsight, he said."
The police were acting on deliberately deceptive information provided by the gamer.
And the overreacting police, too.
Given the situation and looking at it from the perspective of Wichita's police, I don't think they acted inappropriately.
It is really easy to use hindsight to accuse the police of acting wrongly when the outcome is something nobody wants. If one considers the situation, what the police where being told and what they observed, what happened was justified, even if it was unfortunate. From the perspective of the police, with the information they were provided by dispatch, the guy who got shot was an active threat. Based on the 911 call and the unfortunate actions of the victim, there wasn't much else the Police could reasonably do.
Don't fall into the 20/20 hindsight trap here. The police where rolling up on what they thought was an active shooter situation with hostages based on what they thought was a credible 911 call of an eyewitness. When the unfortunate guy opens the door, it goes from bad to worse and apparently an innocent movement was seen as a threat. It may seem a bit extreme in hindsight, but from the cop's perspective this is one of those dangerous situations that, like it or not, justifies the use of deadly force.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
And the overreacting police, too.
Given the situation and looking at it from the perspective of Wichita's police, I don't think they acted inappropriately.
It is really easy to use hindsight to accuse the police of acting wrongly when the outcome is something nobody wants. If one considers the situation, what the police where being told and what they observed, what happened was justified, even if it was unfortunate. From the perspective of the police, with the information they were provided by dispatch, the guy who got shot was an active threat. Based on the 911 call and the unfortunate actions of the victim, there wasn't much else the Police could reasonably do.
Don't fall into the 20/20 hindsight trap here. The police where rolling up on what they thought was an active shooter situation with hostages based on what they thought was a credible 911 call of an eyewitness. When the unfortunate guy opens the door, it goes from bad to worse and apparently an innocent movement was seen as a threat. It may seem a bit extreme in hindsight, but from the cop's perspective this is one of those dangerous situations that, like it or not, justifies the use of deadly force.
Horseshit.
The police officers who killed the innocent person were 50+ yards/meters away and had cover.
There was NO ONE under immediate threat from a person WHO DIDN'T HAVE A VISIBLE WEAPON READY TO USE.
Worst possible case he could have pulled out a pistol. And then what? Take a few blind shots into the bright lights?
Would that have put the officers into some danger? Yes, but tough fucking shit - that's what they get paid to do.
And the poor guy did none of that anyway.
You don't fucking MURDER someone who NEVER DEMONSTRATED ANY ACTUAL CAPABILITY TO DO ANY HARM TO ANYONE.
from the cop's perspective this is one of those dangerous situations that, like it or not, justifies the use of deadly force.
Sounds like those cops need a new perspective. Their current approach is getting innocent, unsuspecting, unarmed people killed. Nothing about that sounds justified to me.
If this is truly considered an appropriate police reaction, then the police need to start working to come up with a strategy to mitigate it, because this makes murder by cop extremely easy. If you want the responding officers to behave the way they did, then someone needs to come up with a better way of authenticating the information they are being provided, because the current situation is obviously not sustainable in the long term.
Then there's the Toronto policeman convicted of attempted murder for the last 6 shots fired at the guy he'd already killed.
From http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
There is no hindsight required. The police were in the wrong, the whole way through. They had no reason to shoot. They did have reason to approach cautiously with a larger than normal presence. That doesn't give them the right to shoot someone if they sneeze no more than it does so on any street in any town anywhere.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
Your fault for raising stupid kids. Baby Boomers & Gen X'ers always tryna kick the can down the road and blame millennials even though it was their generation who failed to raise the millennials intelligently. Darn kids! Get off my lawn!! Every generation younger than me is wrong and stupid! And their music sucks!!!
Probably the fact that there are consequences is some part of the reason Canadian police show greater restraint.
Even IF the call was completely accurate, then it STILL is not a good thing to go in shooting. Why? Because then you KNOW there are innocent people in there. Because there is ALWAYS the possibility that there is no reason to shoot. There is ALWAYS a possible better solution.
You need people who are qualified to asses the situation and determine if it is actually dangerous. A caller will NEVER be able to do that. Not even if he is inside.
So I say that even IF the situation was indeed as told on the phone, it STILL did not mean that the action was ok.
The fact that the police had a perspective where they thought this was a situation where deadly force was ok is by itself a problem.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Opening your front door and going "Wha-?" in response to a disturbance outside is not an action that justifies being gunned down without waiting to see if he was an actual threat.
Horse-fuck the SWAT team too.