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Kansas 'Swat' Perpetrator Will Now Plead Guilty To Dozens More Swat Incidents (nbcnews.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the game-over dept.

An anonymous reader quotes NBC News: The California man behind a years-long string of hoax 911 calls -- including one that ended in a Kansas man's death -- wants to plead guilty to all charges, court documents revealed. Tyler Rai Barriss, 25, intends to waive his right to trial and admit guilt to a 46-count federal indictment, according to a document he signed on Oct. 18 and was filed in U.S. District Court on Wednesday. Barriss faces up to life behind bars for his dozens of acts of "swatting" -- calling police to falsely report a serious crime, in hopes of drawing a massive response to the home of an unsuspecting target.... According to the court records, Barriss will admit to dozens of "swatting" incidents all over America between 2015 and the end of 2017, The false alarms connected to Barriss happened in Ohio, Nevada, Illinois, Indiana, Virginia, Texas, Arizona, Massachusetts, MIssouri, Maine, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Indiana, Michigan, Florida, Connecticut and New York.
Barriss performed SWATs if clients sent him $10 over PayPal -- occasionally demanding "upwards of $50," according to a new (possibly pay-walled) article on Wired. A Call of Duty player hired Barriss to SWAT a teammate who'd caused them to lose a $1.50 wager, but his intended target supplied a false address across town which resulted in the fatal police shooting.

Both gamers are now "awaiting trial on lesser charges," reports NBC.

9 of 196 comments (clear)

  1. How fucked up is America to let this happen? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Every time the police just shrugs and gets off free.

    "We didn't do anything. Someone said there was a situation at this address, so we just bust the door down and shot whoever was inside. It's not our fault"

    And the worst part is that you Americans just accept that this is the way it is and has to be. You just yell at the guy who made the phone call, but have nothing to say about the vaccuum-headed police and their inability to investigate or even think before firing their weapons.

    1. Re:How fucked up is America to let this happen? by sjames · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Be shot with WHAT? A dirty look? Unarmed citizen in the open vs squad of well armed body armored cops standing behind their cars.

      And he probably couldn't hear their instructions.

      Keep in mind, you may be the turkey the next time a squad of cops opens fire. It's not like you have to actually be doing anything even vaguely questionable to end up in their crosshairs.

  2. The rest of the problem by Kohath · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now fix the on-call violence delivery service. At least add:
    - accountability for police
    - mandatory fact-finding before believing whatever story a caller wants to tell
    - body cameras with recordings available to the public (maybe with some controls if you're scared of the public having access to the information for whatever reason)
    - specific trading requirements for SWAT teams, with presumed liability for failure to train
    - a duty for the police to make a genuine attempt protect the life and dignity of everyone they encounter

    1. Re:The rest of the problem by Kohath · · Score: 4, Insightful

      When a violent crime is happening and lives are hanging in the balance, there's no time for your little checklist.

      Plenty of time to gun down innocents though.

    2. Re:The rest of the problem by Kohath · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes, that's exactly the attitude that results in police killing innocents. Congratulations on illustrating it for everyone.

    3. Re:The rest of the problem by vbdasc · · Score: 4, Insightful

      When a violent crime is happening and lives are hanging in the balance, there's no time for your little checklist.

      Actually, in this particular case there was plenty of time to think. In a hostage situation, you simply don't rush things. Unless you're incompetent police, that is.

      Unfortunately, some lives will be lost when people don't follow the commands they are given.

      What if the guy who is given commands happens to be deaf? A foreigner who doesn't understand the language? Slow-witted? Intoxicated? The police command just becomes a death sentence, according to your logic. It shouldn't be this way.

      The bottom line is, IMHO, that both Barriss and the police bear the bulk of responsibility for this unfortunate incident, and neither should be allowed to avoid paying the price.

  3. Doxing, Swatting, and Social Media by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Swatting is just one of the reasons why associating any online accounts you have with your real identity is a terrible idea. This happened because a guy lost a counterstrike match. Another teammate was mad at him, they got in an argument, the guy tried to dox him though his steam profile linked to a facebook page, and ended up getting a completely random person killed as a result. You put your real info on those social media pages, and that's the police kicking down your door and you getting killed. People ask "what do you have to hide". Apparently it's a bunch of jackbooted thugs kicking down your door at 11:30pm because some pathetic waste of flesh on the internet who was mad over losing a $1.50 bet decided to pay someone to anonymously call in a hostage situation.

  4. Re:...state-sanctioned hit squads... by sjames · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The police had cause to come to the house, they had a call for help and the caller provided an address.

    Absolutely. Then they had a call to wonder why the house didn't match the description, why the call didn't actually come in on 911, why the guy at the door seems confused, etc. Too bad they failed that one. Next up, they had the number one rule of shooting, VERIFY YOUR TARGET. They get an EPIC FAIL on that one.

    I don't think it's at all too much to ask that police think before they start shooting so they don't kill people minding their own business in their own homes.

  5. Re:...state-sanctioned hit squads... by dryeo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The cop shot someone when the someone was not a threat. That should be a murder charge as shooting someone who is not a threat should not be tolerated.
    Had a case up here not long ago where the cop got acquitted of murder as the knife wielding person was a threat. The cop did get convicted of attempted murder for the 6 bullets he put in him after the 2 (3?) that killed the perp. There needs to be more consequences for people misusing and removing peoples freedom to live by misusing firearms.
    You want an armed society, the armed people better be responsible with those arms and in my experience, there are too many who aren't.

    --
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism