U.S. District Judge Eric Melgren sentenced Barriss under a deal in which he pleaded guilty in November to a total of 51 federal charges related to fake calls and threats, according to the AP. Prosecutors were seeking a 25-year sentence and the defense a 20-year sentence.<doc-sep>Photo : Irfan Khan ( AP ) Tyler R. Barriss has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for a string of phony emergency calls, one of which was made over a Call of Duty deal and led to police killing an innocent Kansas man. Advertisement A U.S. District Judge sentenced Barriss on Friday, reports the Associated Press. In November, Barriss pleaded guilty to 51 federal charges associated with the malicious phony calls made with the intention of drawing law enforcement to the victims—a form of harassment known as “swatting.” Targets of swatting are often gamers or public figures who have stirred the interest of online trolls. In December 2017, an Ohio gamer allegedly made a $1.50 bet with Barriss through Call of Duty, asking Barriss to call authorities and report a fake hostage situation at the address of a different gamer. But the Wichita, Kansas, address that Barriss used was old and no longer belonged to the intended victim. At the time it belonged to Andrew Finch, a 28-year-old father of two who was not a gamer and had no association with either party. Police arrived and killed Finch. The man who allegedly made the bet, Casey Viner, and the intended victim who reportedly had trash-talked and egged on Viner, Shane Gaskill, were both charged with co-conspiring. Both pleaded not guilty to charges, but Viner told the court he plans to change the plea, according to the AP. In April 2018, while Barriss was being held for the charges, he reportedly accessed the internet and posted a tweet threatening to swat again. “How am I on the Internet if I’m in jail? Oh, because I’m an eGod, that’s how,” he reportedly tweeted from the acount @GoredTutor36. About 20 minutes later he tweeted “All right, now who was talking shit? >:) Your ass is about to get swatted.” Advertisement According to the Kansas City Star, during a comment to the court on Friday, Barriss asked Finch’s family for forgiveness and took “full responsibility in what happened to him.” Finch’s family also filed a lawsuit against the City of Wichita and the police officers who shot and killed Finch. The officer wasn’t charged. Advertisement [Associated Press]<doc-sep>A serial hoax caller who led to a Kansas man’s death was sentenced to 20 years in prison today, the Associated Press reports. In late 2017, Tyler Barriss phoned in a false emergency call on behalf of a gamer angry over a Call of Duty match. The information Barriss used in the call, however, was outdated, and when police arrived at the home, they fatally shot a man who wasn’t involved in the disagreement. The gamers had been arguing over a $1.50 bet. Pleaded guilty to 51 charges Authorities later connected Barriss to other “swatting” incidents, including one made during the Federal Communications Commission’s vote to repeal net neutrality rules. The 26-year-old Barriss ultimately pleaded guilty last year to 51 charges. The officers involved in the Kansas shooting were not charged, although the victim’s family has sued the city of Wichita. According to the Associated Press, the intended victim and man who recruited Barriss are also facing charges, including conspiracy to obstruct justice. In Barriss’ case, the prosecution had reportedly requested a 25-year sentence, while the defense team requested 20 years.<doc-sep>A California man was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison for making a hoax 911 call about a hostage situation in Kansas that ended up with police fatally shooting an innocent man. Tyler Rai Barriss, of Los Angeles pleaded guilty in November to a total of 51 charges stemming from phony emergency calls he made, including one count of making a false report resulting in a death. He admitted to years of "swatting," the act of falsely reporting a serious crime with the aim of drawing a massive police response to the home of an unsuspecting target. Barriss agreed to serve 20 to 25 years in federal prison as part of a plea agreement, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Central District of Los Angeles. “We hope that this will send a strong message about swatting, which is a juvenile and senseless practice," said U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister during a news conference. "We’d like to put an end to it within the gaming community and any other context. Swatting, as I’ve said before, is not a prank." On Dec. 28, 2017, Barriss contacted police to say he was at a home in Wichita, Kansas, where he said he had fatally shot his father and was holding the rest of the family hostage. Officers responded to the Wichita address and demanded that anyone inside the McCormick Street home come out. Confused, Andrew Finch, 28, stepped outside where he raised and dropped his hands several times before an officer opened fire, killing him, officials said. Barriss called in false report to Kansas police at the behest of two gamers, Casey Viner, 18, and Shane Gaskill, 25, authorities said. Viner asked Barriss to make the call as an act of retaliation against Gaskill after a game of "Call of Duty" ended badly. Barriss then taunted Gaskill in Twitter direct messages, before Gaskill challenged the California man to swat him, according to court records. Gaskill gave Barriss the address to a home where Gaskill had once lived that was then occupied by Finch's family. Finch's family is suing the police and the city of Wichita over his death. Other false calls connected to Barriss between 2015 and 2017 happened in Ohio, Nevada, Illinois, Indiana, Virginia, Texas, Arizona, Massachusetts, MIssouri, Maine, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Indiana, Michigan, Florida, Connecticut and New York. The judge on Friday sentenced Barriss to 150 months for the Kansas charges and 90 months for the California charges — both to run consecutively. He was also sentenced to five years of supervised release for charges in Washington, D.C., for making fake bomb threats to the FBI headquarters and the Federal Communications Commission in 2017. That will run concurrently to the other sentences. In addition, he has to pay $5,000 of restitution to the Kansas Crime Victims Compensation Board, which paid that amount to the Finch family to cover funeral costs.<doc-sep>
A man who initiated a swatting amid a Call of Duty: WWII argument that ultimately turned fatal has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. 26-year-old California man Tyler R. Barriss has been sentenced to two decades behind bars after previously pleading guilty in November to 51 federal charges stemming from a history of hoax calls and threats. According to the Associated Press, Barriss was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge Eric Melgren. Barriss has admitted to making a false report to authorities that later resulted in the 2017 Kansas death of Andrew Finch, who was shot and killed by responding officers after Barriss allegedly honored a player's request to swat another player in Wichita. The address Barriss gave when placing the fake emergency calls, which included fabricated claims of a kidnapping and shooting, turned out to be old and thus missed the intended target, Shane Gaskill. Instead, the address sent authorities to the home of Finch, who was fatally shot after opening the door. The city of Wichita has since been sued by Finch's family. Barriss' history of similar tactics is alleged to have occurred across a multitude of regions. Fake calls from Barriss were also reported in Nevada, Texas, Illinois, Texas, New York, Florida, and more. Though swatting may have been new to some upon its arrival in the mainstream conversation by way of Barriss' case, it's been a problem for years. Last June, for example, Parkland mass shooting survivor and gun safety activist David Hogg was targeted.