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from the yellow-stripe-down-the-back-of-the-uniform dept.
From the NY Daily News (and covered almost everywhere):
A Kansas man shot to death by police earlier this week was the victim of a misdirected online prank known as "swatting," according to social media chatter.
The victim, identified as Andrew Finch, was gunned down on Thursday night after cops responded to his Wichita home amid a false report that he had shot his father to death and was holding his mother, brother and sister hostage.
A responding officer fatally shot Finch, 28, when he came to the front door, Wichita deputy police chief Troy Livingston said during a press conference. Livingston declined to comment on what triggered the officer to open fire and would not say whether Finch was armed.
Police briefing (10m8s). Body camera footage (53s).
I'm speechless.
takyon: The swatting was quickly linked to a dispute between two Call of Duty players:
On Twitter, more than a dozen people who identified themselves as being in the gaming community told The Eagle that a feud between two Call of Duty players sparked one to initiate a "swatting" call. After news began to spread about what happened Thursday night, the people in the gaming community, through Twitter posts, pointed at two gamers.
"I DIDNT GET ANYONE KILLED BECAUSE I DIDNT DISCHARGE A WEAPON AND BEING A SWAT MEMBER ISNT MY PROFESSION," said one gamer, who others said made the swatting call. His account was suspended overnight.
According to posts on Twitter, two gamers were arguing when one threatened to target the other with a swatting call. The person who was the target of the swatting gave the other gamer a false address, which sent police to a nearby home instead of his own, according to Twitter posts. The person who was to be the target of the swatting sent a Tweet saying, "Someone tried to swat me and got an innocent man killed." [...] Dexerto, a online news service focused on gaming and the Call of Duty game, reported the argument began over a $1 or $2 wager over the game.
Update: 911 Call from suspect (4m58s).
Brian Krebs conversed with the apparent suspect over Twitter.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by BK on Saturday December 30 2017, @07:33AM (6 children)
The guy that called this to 911 will go to jail. That part's easy.
Shot for failing to follow directions. Wtf.
The police were at least 50 feet away and were shining lights in the guy's eyes to confuse him. Standard police tactics / procedure. Even if he had a pistol in his waistband -- and he didn't -- at 50 feet away, he wasn't all that threatening. Maybe if it was a 50 cal rifle... but they don't fit in the waistband.
The cop who shot should be tried for murder. But he'll probably get off because the prosecutor won't try really hard.
Wtf
...but you HAVE heard of me.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by esperto123 on Saturday December 30 2017, @12:31PM (2 children)
And the worst part is that everyone is concentrating on the swatting thing (which is bad and must be punised if just for diverting resources), but the actual problem in this trigger happy police force, the guy had no idea what was going on, as you said, was quite a distance away with strong lights on his face and wasn't really a threat by any means, and could possibly being turning around asking to his family members to get back or something.
Shit like this happens again and again, and one thing that I noticed that is common to most if not all cases, is that police do not let the other party to talk or actually listen when they do, they shout instructions and get pissed if you try to respond, that also happened very clearly in another murder by a police officer in a hotel were someone confused an airsoft with a real gun and called the police, the guy was drunk, the police officers were shouting contradictory instructions, shouting to the guy shut the fuck up, and from what I could see, the guys pants were falling down and he was trying to keep them up, and got shot for it.
I don't know what or when it happened, but police officers are being taught to shoot to kill at any percieved danger, not much warning, no proper assessment of the situation, which includes talking to the person on the other side of the scope.
I think they whatched too many movies where people go from drunk to expert marksmans in 0.5 second flat and can shoot them all between the eyes while running the other way.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 30 2017, @02:33PM
Actually it seems more plausible that the cops in that hotel video were just looking for someone to murder.
Because if you think a suspect is a threat you would ask the suspect to stay face down on the ground with his hands on top of his head and to NOT MOVE AT ALL. Then one cop approaches the guy and cuffs him while the other person covers him. If both cops are too chicken they could ask the guy to stay still while they call and wait for backup till there are enough cops to take some drunk guy face down on the ground.
But instead they asked the guy to crawl TOWARDS them and do all sorts of stuff (cross legs etc) till the guy made a "mistake" and gave them an excuse to kill him.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 30 2017, @05:57PM
What I get from the hotel video is to remain lying on the ground with arms outstretched, waiting for the cops to come in for the arrest and not saying a word. If they shoot, the wounds will be in the back (as little as that may help to prosecute them).
That will probably get me beaten up once the body cameras "malfunction", but it beats getting shot.
(Score: 2) by tonyPick on Saturday December 30 2017, @12:43PM (2 children)
SidAlpha has some comments on this, and also includes the 911 recording:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n3enM3jjbU [youtube.com]
At about 6:25 in the YT is a portion of the 911 call, where the shitwit swatter says he's "poured gasoline all over the house" and might "just set it on fire". At this point the police will be twitchy as fuck about any sudden movement as a danger, gun or not.
(Score: 3, Touché) by BK on Saturday December 30 2017, @07:11PM
If you're too twitchy to even approach the place, you're too twitchy to go on the call. If you believe that shooting into a place that you legitimately think could be coated in gasoline is a good plan, you are, or should be, too dumb to hold a job that involves guns.
#disarmthepolice
...but you HAVE heard of me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 30 2017, @07:16PM
ahh, protecting the evidence. they'll do anything to get their perp.