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California Man Sentenced To 20 Years In Deadly Kansas 'Swatting' (fox4kc.com)
slipped_bit writes: Tyler R. Barriss, 26, who pleaded guilty to multiple counts of "swatting" attempts, including the case that caused an innocent man to be killed by police in 2017, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. The case in 2017 was all because of a dispute between two online players over a $1.50 bet in the "Call of Duty: WWII" video game. A total of 51 federal charges related to fake calls and threats were made against Barriss. "Barriss' prosecution in Wichita consolidated other federal cases that had initially been filed against him in California and the District of Columbia involving similar calls and threats he made," reports FOX 4 Kansas City. "Prosecutors had asked for a 25-year sentence, while the defense had sought a 20-year term."
"The intended target in Wichita, Shane Gaskill, 20, and the man who allegedly recruited Barriss, Casey Viner, 19, of North College Hill, Ohio, are charged as co-conspirators," the report adds. "Authorities say Viner provided Barriss with an address for Gaskill that Gaskill had previously given to Viner. Authorities also say that when Gaskill noticed Barriss was following him on Twitter, he gave Barriss that old address and taunted him to 'try something.'"
"The intended target in Wichita, Shane Gaskill, 20, and the man who allegedly recruited Barriss, Casey Viner, 19, of North College Hill, Ohio, are charged as co-conspirators," the report adds. "Authorities say Viner provided Barriss with an address for Gaskill that Gaskill had previously given to Viner. Authorities also say that when Gaskill noticed Barriss was following him on Twitter, he gave Barriss that old address and taunted him to 'try something.'"
Instead of pointing the gun at yourself, point it at someone else.
Only a matter of time before it went off and killed someone.
Twenty years seems light considering the number of times he swatted people.
How long did the guy who actually pulled the trigger and sent the deadly bullet get?
Yeah, and the trigger-happy cop who killed the innocent man does not serve jail time.
Police want to have an excuse to use all that cool SWAT gear.
No matter where you go, there you are.
Agreed, 20 years is way too much for this and the police should always verify before shooting. It is ultimately their fault an innocent person was murdered. This is just a displacement of responsibility by trigger happy police. It is not acceptable no matter what they told. They are more responsible than the malicious idiot who called them.
“If I could take it back, I would, but there is nothing I can do,” Barriss told the court. “I am so sorry for that.”
Uh, no, you cunt. You showed that you have no remorse throughout the whole ordeal.
Those who do not learn from commit history are doomed to regress it.
This guy does deserve the sentence he got.
Perhaps.
But the cop who pulled the trigger, and murdered the unarmed victim in cold blood perhaps should serve some time as well.
Absolutely. For some reason, it seems he's getting off without so much as a reprimand.
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When all you have is a SWAT team, everything looks like a huge drug-lord compound.
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if you consider the LEOs had none of the foregone knowledge thaat they were not at a house where a murder had already been committed, the police reaction is much more understandable
Nope, an unarmed man stood in bright lights on his own porch was murdered. I don't understand why the policeman even fucking shot him, let alone got away with that murder.
If you don't read what exactly the kid did, you don't have a right to comment. [...] The cop opened the door expecting a shooter about to execute a number of people
Given that the policeman didn't open the fucking door and did shoot an unarmed man I think it's pretty clear that you don't think you have a right to comment.
You would rather other people act to protect you and die than you do it yourself because cops are bad in your eye
How can I put this. I could have done a better job than that policeman, and I'd seriously fucking hope he's never called out to my house because he's demonstrably more likely to fucking kill me than anybody he's allegedly there to protect me from.
I don't hate the police, I just expect the law to apply to them. Including murder charges when they murder unarmed people standing in the door of their own home.
People still blaming the cops on this one. Get a clue, please. This is the US. Guns outnumber people. It's just a cold, hard fact: US cops have to deal with a population that's swimming in guns, and it's their responsibility to somehow keep the "peace" So they assume that pretty much everyone they encounter is packing, which means they're going to escalate to gunfire very, very quickly in response to anything outside of "normal, quite street scene".
Cops are like this because of the choices we've made as a civilization about guns. We engineered this situation. I'm not making value judgments - just pointing out that the trade-off is absolutely clear. We really, really, really, really want free ownership of guns. But freedom isn't free - the cost is a high murder rate, school shootings and swat events gone bad. And it's obvious to me that we're generally ok with this tradeoff as a group. When gun violence makes the news, 20% of the population wrings their hands, 20% of the population goes out and buys more guns, and 60% shrugs their shoulders. After 72 hours everyone forgets about it. The dead get buried, maybe someone goes to prison, insurance companies write a few checks, more guns go into circulation, and everyone hangs around till the next event. We could have gotten rid of the guns decades ago if we really wanted to.
Oh, and here's a message to any NRA type who comes back with "guns don't cause increased violence" or "guns make schools safer" or any variant of that: shut the f*** up, grow a pair, and admit that your favorite toy comes with a blood price. No, your family is NOT safer cause you have a gun in the nightstand. Yes, school shootings are DEFINITELY linked to easy gun availability. Yes, our sky high murder rate is BECAUSE of guns. For Gods sake, just own up to the price we pay instead of hiding behind something that Charleton Heston spewed in support of a gun industry lobby. You'll get a ton more respect from me.
The swatter orchestrated an incredibly dangerous situation and is the one to blame for this. For what's basically a murder (not first degree) 20 years seems reasonable. He's not in for life, but he'll be in a cage long enough that his testosterone levels will be way lower when he gets out. He probably won't be a threat by then.
As a civilized society, we are somewhat reluctant to recognize the most uncivilized elements of humankind must be dealt with
The first step is to make sure we don't give them a badge and a gun.
There's two problems here. First the people who decide who gets a badge and gun also think it's OK for law enforcement officers to shoot people for any reason, not the least of which being that they were frightened. So no one in law enforcement is doing the right thing from top to bottom. Second problem is a lot of people in the USA, never having been in an interaction with the police, can't empathize with victims of police manslaughter and agree that it's perfectly OK for them to gun people down because they're afraid and never should have been hired as a law enforcement officer to begin with.
You have to accept many of your fellow Americans are exactly what they were inartfully referred to as in the last presidential election cycle. They are deplorable excuses for human beings who are in fact, perfectly OK with things the way they are, but would be happier still if things got a lot worse, so long as none of it affects them personally.
Are you unaware of the details? The police, in large numbers, had the front of the house surrounded, from a tactical position behind their vehicles. An unarmed individual came out, was not identified, was not given a chance to comply with orders, and fired upon within seconds simply because an officer thought his hands passed too close to his waist. Could have just as easily been a hostage, especially since having hostages answer the door is the typical scenario.
This was an egregiously terrible shoot. There is zero excuse here, and if you're defending executing someone in these circumstances, you're a disgusting person condoning having absolutely no reasonable restriction on allowing police to execute anyone they encounter. They didn't know if it was a hostage, they didn't know if he was armed, they didn't give him a chance to surrender, he didn't do anything at all-- his hands just passed near his waist he didn't reach for something, and they did it all from a distance behind cover.
Barriss absolutely deserves the 20 years, but the officer who opened fire deserves life. And fuck whoever would defend one of the worst shoots ever, you're not defending a tough call, you're defending a wholly unjustified murder.
Police knock on the wrong doors and addresses all the time too, they have to accept there's a chance the call is fake or they are at the wrong house.
the most uncivilized elements of humankind must be dealt with
100% correct. Trigger happy police officers who shoot unarmed people must be dealt with.
I am merely grateful
Why are you grateful that the very people who protect you are so fucking trigger happy that they are likely to shoot you when you call for help, even if you're tiny white woman in her bathrobe? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Interactions with police are an example of a clash of an unpleasant element of society, but in the USA it is for all the wrong reasons.
It is tough to be right 100% of the time. You're right.
But when you are the guy who is wrong that one time, and you kill some innocent person, and it happens because of your personal judgement (nobody else was shooting, just YOU), you should be held accountable.
I am a convicted felon. I could have died coming out of that last bank, would have been nobody's fault but my own. I get that.
MOST police shootings are justified. I get that. Hell, I subscribe to Donut Operator's channel on YouTube.
When they are not justified, though, we are not served by a justice culture that protects bad shooters.
You're in denial. Normal for many rape victims like yourself.
All other arguments aside, I'd like to present two facts and one outcome:
Cedric has probably never killed anyone.
Officer Justin Rapp has.
Because of Rapp's actions, an innocent person Rapp was supposed to be protecting is now dead.
Is it presumptuous of me to hold the opinion police shooting innocent people is a bad thing?