Andrew Finch, 28, was shot Thursday night by a Wichita police officer when he opened his front door
A 28-year-old man was shot and killed Thursday night by a police officer in Kansas when he came to his front door.
Andrew Finch may have been the victim of an internet prank known as ‘swatting’ – where someone makes up a false report in order to get a SWAT team to respond to another person’s address.
Wichita police received a 911 call that that a father had been shot in the head and the shooter was holding his mother, brother and sister hostage.
‘That was the information we were working off of,’ Deputy Wichita Police Chief Troy Livingston said to the Wichita Eagle.
Officers went to the house and prepared for a hostage situation. When Finch came to his front door, he was shot by a cop.
Livingston didn’t say what caused the officer to shoot the man or whether he was armed. No one else was wounded in the home.
Police are investigating whether it was a ‘swatting’ incident or prank.
Andrew Finch may have been the victim of an internet prank known as ‘swatting’ – where someone makes up a false report in order to get a SWAT team to respond to another person’s address. It appears that one user gave another user a false address, which ended up being Finch’s residence
‘This call was little peculiar for us,’ Livingston said.
‘[The call] went to a substation first, then it was relayed to dispatch, then dispatch gave it to us. We have a lot of information to go through.’
‘We were given some misinformation on the (original) call,’ he said.
‘We got a call that someone was deceased in the residence and that proved not to be true. Also, we’re still trying to determine who was the hostages and how that unfolded as well.’
More than a dozen people involved in the online gaming community have said that an argument between two Call of Duty players caused one to initiate the ‘swat’
It appears that police may have been given a false address by one of the gamers, and Finch lived in the home
More than a dozen people involved in the online gaming community have said that an argument between two Call of Duty players caused one to initiate the ‘swat’.
‘I DIDNT GET ANYONE KILLED BECAUSE I DIDNT DISCHARGE A WEAPON AND BEING A SWAT MEMBER ISNT MY PROFESSION,’ said one gamer on Twitter, who others said made the swatting call.
His account has since been suspended.
‘That kids house that I swatted is on the news’, the same account tweeted.
It appears that police may have been given a false address by one of the gamers, and Finch lived in the home.
The shooting happened on the 1000 block of McCormick Street in Wichita on Thursday night
The argument apparently began over a $2 bet during a Call of Duty World War II game
The person who was supposed to be the target of the prank tweeted: ‘Someone tried to swat me and got an innocent man killed.’
The argument apparently began over a $2 bet, according to the gaming news website Dexerto.
‘What the f*** am I hearing swatting a innocent person getting them killed over $1.50 wager right after Christmas?! You two deserve to rot in jail, and I really hope that you do’ another user tweeted.