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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: 2) by bzipitidoo on Saturday December 30 2017, @04:11PM (1 child)
Oh, we're outraged. But what is to be done? Yes, the police were trigger happy incompetents and idiots. With all the SWATting that's been going on, you'd think the police would have realized they have to engage in a little skepticism. And, yes, their training needs a hard look. Also, need more screening to weed out the type of person who is attracted to police work because they enjoy the feeling of power it gives them to point weapons at citizens and make them endure humiliations, make them crawl on their bellies, and even hope they get a chance to kill, and want to commemorate that with notches on their revolvers. I'm thinking the cops ought to put the guns away. I understand British bobbies do not have guns. Guns have their uses, but they are seriously overused in the US.
I'd suggest the root of this goes beyond the police to the 2nd Amendment flag waving, gun loving US subculture. Having a gun handy is like keeping a spare can of gasoline on the fireplace, or building a swimming pool underneath some power lines. There are many ways a gun may get its owner or loved ones killed, from accidents to being turned on the owner by an acquaintance or relative turned hostile, being grabbed by a burglar and used on the owner, providing the means to act on impulsive suicidal or homicidal thoughts, and inciting and scaring police into using lethal force against the owner. A gun is a very bad thing to have handy if the owner ever suffers a mental breakdown, maybe overdoses on some hallucinogen possibly even by accident because it was mislabeled as something light such as aspirin. Dr. McCoy at the start of the famous Star Trek episode City on the Edge of Forever is not someone I want to see armed with a phaser. Yep, his phaser got someone killed. Not that mental cases can't throw themselves off high bridges or crash their cars at high speeds into walls, but guns make it far too easy. The police know there are a lot of well armed citizens. It's not just the police who need to put the guns down, it's everyone. But I see no letup anytime soon. Expect the body count to keep growing, for now.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday December 31 2017, @05:00AM
It's a red herring since it is irrelevant to the swatting or the police response.