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Prosecutors seek 25 years in prison for deadly Kansas hoax
Federal prosecutors are seeking a 25-year prison sentence for a California man who made a hoax call that led police to fatally shoot a Kansas man following a dispute between online gamers.
[...] Barriss faces sentencing Friday in federal court in Wichita for making the false report resulting in a death. He has pleaded guilty to 51 charges related to fake calls and threats across the country.
The defense is seeking a 20-year prison sentence.
Sentencing is set for March 29.
Previously: Swatted: Police Kill Innocent Man in Kansas
Related: Gamers Use Police Hoax to Lash Out at Opponents
Swatter Just Prankster?
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Swatter Who Caused a Death in Kansas Likely Faces at Least 20 Years in Prison
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(Score: 4, Informative) by janrinok on Saturday March 02 2019, @10:44AM (5 children)
I was going to write and say pretty much the same thing.
LEA should only open fire if they or the persons that they are defending are in imminent danger of being injured or killed by an armed individual. By armed, I mean somebody who has a weapon, bomb or other device intended to injure or kill someone else. Anything else is too much force. If the threat is not armed and is compliant then the police should be able to control him/her without the use of firearms.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 02 2019, @11:26AM (4 children)
Exactly [kansas.com]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by janrinok on Saturday March 02 2019, @12:42PM (2 children)
Was he aiming a weapon? Did he have a mental condition? Was he holding his trousers up? Did he have a hearing disorder? The first one would justify opening fire, the others not so. What in particular was so threatening about a man who did NOT have a weapon in his hands but was as surprised as hell when SWAT turned up at his home? Perhaps LEA should grow some balls rather than shoot first and then try to justify their actions later. Open fire when you SEE the weapon, not when your imagination starts running amok.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Saturday March 02 2019, @01:56PM (1 child)
The cops used their magic phrase, "I feared for my life". The victim put his hands up, as commanded, but kept putting his hands back down at his waist, and the overly credulous, trigger happy, scared stupid cops decided to interpret that as possibly drawing a weapon. They could have fired a warning shot first, but they didn't. There are also "soft kill" methods that disable without killing, such as tasers, but it seems the cops don't much use them. The victim could have done better himself, but from what I read, the primary cause was not his mistakes but the mistakes of the police. They're the ones who escalated the situation to such extremes.
I would say also that the cops were careless, careless of due process and citizen rights. They evidently believed they were confronting a murderer, and people care much less if any death that occurs in this situation is that of a murderer rather than a total innocent. Actually kind of don't mind if the cops save the public from the bother of a murder trial and a long stay on death row. The cops conducted themselves accordingly, and that was the chief mistake. Went in with the wrong attitude. Even if the citizen was not a murderer, they likely figure that he's a lowlife guilty of something, and will not be missed. He wouldn't be accused of a heinous crime if he was a total innocent, they think. Also, there's kudos to be earned for killing a bad guy, and the cops are a little too eager to get those, put a notch on their revolvers. It's that police culture that could be most responsible for the tragic ending. Police officers are never wanted on juries, because they tend to think that even if the allegations of a particular case aren't true, the accused did something else and deserves to be found guilty anyway, or they're more interested in "supporting" their brothers and sisters in blue than in justice.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 03 2019, @04:56AM
FYI, use of force instructors flatly discourage warning shots. One reason is that unlike the movies every real life bullet actually hits something or someone. Another is that if the situation is genuinely dangerous you should be saving cartridges for more effective purposes.
That said, an officer on my city's police force said that in some circumstances he might fire his service weapon into his patrol car. He figures the city will end up buying anything he shoots, so it might as well be something they already own. He didn't mention it, but he'd also be activating the street rule of Crazy Always Wins.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 02 2019, @08:00PM
stfu you bootlicking bitch. you want videos of people and animals being executed by pigs just because these cowardly pieces of shit think they can do whatever they want? there's plenty of them. so this guy dares to not put his hands where he's told. fuck them. at least he died a man instead of a bitch like you. chicken shit motherfuckers are far away with way more firepower. they kill my dogs or family and you'll see what the fuck justice looks like.