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posted by takyon on Saturday December 30 2017, @04:39AM   Printer-friendly
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.


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Saturday December 30 2017, @10:08AM (8 children)

    by hemocyanin (186) on Saturday December 30 2017, @10:08AM (#615805) Journal

    Then change the fucking procedures. Cops are like ISIS, but on steroids and immunity.

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  • (Score: 3, Touché) by lx on Saturday December 30 2017, @12:27PM (2 children)

    by lx (1915) on Saturday December 30 2017, @12:27PM (#615825)

    Cops are like ISIS, but on steroids and immunity.

    Either I missed the reports of US cops burning entire villages to the ground, killing the men and raping the women, or you have no idea about the world outside your neighborhood.

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Saturday December 30 2017, @12:38PM (4 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday December 30 2017, @12:38PM (#615830) Journal
    While I agree that the shooting was completely uncalled for, ISIS has a hell of a lot more immunity than police do. For example, ISIS has been committing war crimes since at least 2014. They weren't even investigated [nytimes.com] until this year.

    So far, they have found the sites of more than 70 mass graves, numbers that have overwhelmed the nation’s police and forensics resources as well as the Iraqis’ international partners helping to search for tens of thousands of missing people.

    In September, the United Nations Security Council empowered a special adviser to help Iraq investigate potential war crimes, including mass killings, committed by Islamic State. The adviser’s team will not arrive in Iraq until early 2018. Given the limited resources and costs of forensics, it is unclear how many mass graves could be properly exhumed, let alone how many — if any — suspects could face justice.

    At least US police-involved shootings are investigated right away, even if there are very few consequences.

    • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Saturday December 30 2017, @06:38PM (3 children)

      by hemocyanin (186) on Saturday December 30 2017, @06:38PM (#615910) Journal

      ISIS is so terrible in the areas they control because they have immunity THERE. Cops are like ISIS, but HERE. If ISIS did the shit cops do here, they would be prosecuted. If cops did the shit they do in ISIS territory, they would face consequences. Cops==ISIS.

      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday December 30 2017, @07:58PM (2 children)

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday December 30 2017, @07:58PM (#615945) Journal

        If ISIS did the shit cops do here, they would be prosecuted.

        Except we already know that is completely wrong. ISIS does all kinds of shit without prosecution (by themselves that is, they might get it from the rest of the world eventually, if they lose badly enough in coming years): murder [dailymail.co.uk], kidnapping [independent.co.uk], theft [businessinsider.com], etc.

        • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Sunday December 31 2017, @08:19PM (1 child)

          by hemocyanin (186) on Sunday December 31 2017, @08:19PM (#616198) Journal

          OK -- you just aren't getting it.

          If ISIS member does violence in America against Americans, that member will be prosecuted because ISIS is not in power in America.
          If ISIS member does violence in ISIS controlled area, ISIS member will face no consequences.
          If Cop does violence in in ISIS controlled area against ISIS-member, that cop will face "prosecution" -- likely swift and deadly.
          If Cop does violence in Cop controlled area (America), cop will face zero consequences.

          Thus, Cops and ISIS are the same shit.

          • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday December 31 2017, @08:55PM

            by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday December 31 2017, @08:55PM (#616207) Journal

            OK -- you just aren't getting it.

            Wow. You said nothing about about jurisdiction before. And jurisdiction is near completely irrelevant since a cop almost never acts as a cop outside of their jurisdiction.

            And as I already pointed out, ISIS did a lot of stuff (brazen acts of murder, kidnapping, theft, etc) that would put actual cops in jail (and yes, I can point to police officers in jail for these sorts of crimes). This is the sort of immature puffery that lowers the quality of discussion on the internet.