A man who claimed to be responsible for placing a ‘swatting’ call that led police to the home of an innocent man who was fatally shot by police over an online gaming feud- says it’s not his fault cops killed the man.
Los Angeles police on Friday arrested, Tyler Barriss, a 25-year-old gamer who they say made a prank call that led a SWAT team to fatally shoot father-of-two, Andy Finch, 28 of Wichita, Kansas.
‘It’s my personal belief that I didn’t cause someone to die,’ a man claiming to be Barriss said Friday during an interview on the DramaAlert YouTube channel.
‘Of course I was involved,’ he admitted to DramaAlert. The interview with the YouTube channel appeared to happen before police arrested the gamer Friday night.
Los Angeles police on Friday arrested a 25-year-old gamer, Tyler Barriss (left), they say made a prank call that led a SWAT team to fatally shoot an innocent man, 28-year-old Andrew Finch (right), over an online gaming dispute
When Finch came to the front door of his home on West McCormick Street in Wichita, he was shot dead by a police officer
‘The call was made by me, but as far as the whole incident, you could point the finger at a few different people. You could point the finger at the cop that shot him, you could point the finger at the guy who made the call. You could point the finger at the person that gave the address.’
Meanwhile, Andy’s family has been left devastated.
His brother, Jerome, told the Wichita Eagle Andy had been turning his life around in recent years. He had spent most of his childhood in foster care, and did time in juvenile detention, as well as part of his adult life in prison, sentenced for criminal discharge of a firearm.
‘Then for this to happen, you know, when he’s bouncing back from all the things that have happened to him, the things he had to go through, the trials, the struggles he had to overcome, and then for this to happen,’ Jerome said.
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‘Andy was very loyal and very kind and would do for people whatever needed to be done. Family meant a lot to him. He was trying to do the right thing,’ said his mom, Lisa Finch. ‘He was trying really hard.’
Authorities suspect Barriss called 911 and concocted a story about a hostage crisis in a Wichita, Kansas home.
Barriss then allegedly gave 911 dispatchers Finch’s address in Wichita.
Barriss is alleged to have been engaged in a practice known in the online gaming world as ‘swatting’ – or sending a SWAT team to the home of another person by claiming there was an emergency that warranted it.
Law enforcement sources told NBC News that Barriss became involved in a dispute with an online gamer.
As retaliation, he gave police what he believed to be the address of the individual with whom he had an argument. Instead, the address was that of Finch, who had nothing to do with the original dispute.
When Finch came to his front door on Thursday night, he was shot dead by a police officer.
Barriss has had previous run-ins with the law. In 2015, he pleaded not guilty to charges of phoning in a false bomb threat that triggered the evacuation of a local television news station, according to the Glendale News-Press.
He was arrested on Friday after LAPD officers went to the rehab facility in which he was living.
More than a dozen people involved in the online gaming community have said that an argument between two Call of Duty players over a $2 bet caused one to initiate the ‘swat’.
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.
In the call released by the police department the caller tells the dispatcher: ‘They were arguing and I shot him in the head and he’s not breathing anymore.’
His mother Lisa Finch (above) said that her son, Andrew, was unarmed when he opened the door to the family’s home Thursday night after hearing something
Lisa Finch said her son (above) screamed and was shot. She said the family then was forced outside barefoot in freezing cold and that her granddaughter was forced to step over her dying uncle. Lisa has said that her son was ‘murdered’
The dispatcher then tells him to put the gun down.
The caller says it was ‘an accident’ and adds: ‘I’m just pointing the gun at them, making sure that they stay in the closet, my mom and my little brother.’
He then threatens to burn the house down saying: ‘I might just pour gasoline all over the house; I might just set it on fire’, before hanging up.
Officers went to the house and prepared for a hostage situation. Bodycam footage shows that 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.
His mother Lisa Finch said that her son, Andrew Finch, was unarmed when he opened the door to the family’s home Thursday night after hearing something.
She said he screamed and was shot. She said the family then was forced outside barefoot in freezing cold and that her granddaughter was forced to step over her dying uncle.
Lisa has said that her son was ‘murdered’.
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
Police are investigating whether it was a ‘swatting’ incident or prank. The FBI joined the investigation on Friday afternoon.
‘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.’
A spokeswoman says a company that runs online gaming tournaments is assisting authorities as they investigate the fatal shooting.
UMG Gaming operates online gaming tournaments, including one for the Call of Duty game.
‘We woke this morning to horrible news about an innocent man losing his life,’ Shannon Gerritzen, a UMG vice president, said in an email to The Associated Press.
‘Our hearts go out to his loved ones. We are doing everything we can to assist the authorities in this matter.’
Some false calls to police can be a felony punishable by up to 13 months in prison for a first-time offender under Kansas law.
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
‘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.