Two Teenaged Gamers Plead 'Not Guilty' For Fatal Kansas Swatting Death (reuters.com)

Two more men entered pleas in federal court for their roles in a SWAT call that led to a fatal police shooting in Kansas: not guilty. An anonymous reader quotes Reuters: Shane Gaskill, 19, of Wichita, Kansas, and Casey Viner, 18, from a suburb of Cincinnati, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday and remained free on $10,000 bond, court records showed. Both of the suspects live with their parents, local media reported. In the so-called "swatting" incident, in which someone falsely reports an emergency requiring a police response, Viner got upset at Gaskill over a video game they played online, federal prosecutors said, and Viner contacted a known "swatter"...and asked him to make the false report to police at an address that had been provided by Gaskill. Viner did not know that Gaskill no longer lived at the address, but Gaskill knew, prosecutors said.

After media reports of the shooting, Gaskill urged [swatter Tyler] Barriss to delete their communications and Viner wiped his phone, according to the indictment... Barriss and Viner face federal charges of conspiracy and several counts of wire fraud. Viner and Gaskill were charged with obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice, and Gaskill was also charged with wire fraud and additional counts of obstruction of justice.
In a jailhouse interview in January, Barriss told a local news team that "Whether you hang me from a tree, or you give me 5, 10, 15 years... I don't think it will ever justify what happened... I hope no one ever does it, ever again. I hope it's something that ceases to exist."

In April, while still in jail, Barriss gained access to the internet then posted "All right, now who was talking shit? >:) Your ass is about to get swatted."

Comments

Stupid charge

[Anonymous Coward]

How about you charge the police officers who unjustifiably shot the victim to death with murder first?

Re:Stupid charge

[Riceballsan]

honestly I do have to say, it is a bit of both on that end. 100% screw people who think falsely telling the police that there is a life and death situation. But yes doubly screw actual law officers that think innocent until proven guilty is only a thing if they arrest someone.

Re:Stupid charge

[Anonymous Coward]

The military has ROE.
The police has contempt for anyone else.

Re:Stupid charge

[hairyfeet]

Uhhh then they would do what the police USED to do before they got all that leftover military gear that left them better armed than many third world armies which was call in a hostage negotiator to ya know, try to actually NEGOTIATE a safe ending for everybody?

But then they wouldn't get to play with all that cool military stuff and shoot places all to hell with zero actual evidence shit is going on, and where would be the fun in that?