An innocent man was shot dead by police on his door step due to an online prank.
Andrew Finch, 28, was fatally wounded by Los Angeles officers following a hoax emergency call that resulted in a SWAT team storming his home in Kansas.
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Wichita deputy police chief Troy Livingston said the the hoax call was a deadly prank known as ‘swatting’, revealing that a suspect who called 911 with a fake story about a shooting and kidnapping at the victim’s address.
Tyler Barriss, 25, is suspected of making that call and was arrested in LA on Friday.
In audio of the 911 call, a man said he had shot his father in the head and that he was holding his mother and a sibling at gunpoint.
The caller, speaking calmly, also said he had poured fuel inside the home ‘and I might just set it on fire’.
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Officers subsequently surrounded the home at the address the caller provided and prepared for a hostage situation.
When Mr Finch went to the door, police told him to put his hands up and move slowly.
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But Mr Livingston said the man moved a hand towards his waistband – a common place where guns are concealed.
An officer, fearing the man was reaching for a gun, fired a single shot.
Mr Finch died a few minutes later at hospital.
Mr Livingston said Mr Finch was unarmed.
The officer, a seven-year veteran of the department, is on paid leave pending the investigation.
Lisa Finch on Friday told reporters ‘that cop murdered my son over a false report in the first place’.
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In addition to the 911 call, police also released a brief video of body camera footage from another officer at the scene.
Mr Livingston said investigators were tracking online leads, and a law enforcement official who earlier confirmed Barriss’s arrest said the shooting stemmed from a dispute over Call Of Duty.
The official said Barriss believed a person involved in the dispute lived at the address, but that investigators do not believe Mr Finch was the intended target.
Mr Finch’s mother said her son was not a gamer.
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Court records show Barriss was convicted in 2016 on two counts of making a false bomb report to a TV station in Glendale, California, and sent to Los Angeles County jail for two years.
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Jail records show he was released in January.
The FBI estimates that roughly 400 cases of swatting occur annually, with some using caller ID spoofing to disguise their number.
Officer Paul Cruz, a spokesman for Wichita police, said the two city police departments are working with the FBI on the case.
He provided no further details including on possible charges or extradition.
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