Kansas court settles on fatal 2017 Call of Duty swatting incident

destructoid.com:

A Kansas court has settled the 2017 case in which a Witchita resident was shot dead by a police detective after officers responded to a fake “hostage situation” taking place at the man’s house — the result of a “swatting” incident perpetrated by Tyler Barriss and concerning Call of Duty players Shane Gaskill and Casey Viner.

On the evening of December 28, 2017, 28-year-old Andrew Finch was at the house owned by his mother when he noticed police lights flashing directly outside of the residence. Opening the door to investigate the commotion, Finch was shot dead moments later by police detective Justin Rapp. Tragically, Finch was not remotely connected to the incidents that had led the police to his front door that fateful night.

In reality, Los Angeles resident Tyler Barriss had sent the police to Finch’s residence, erroneously believing that it was the home of Shane Gaskill, an Ohio resident who had gotten into a fight with another player, Casey Viner, over a “$1.50 wager match” on Call of Duty: WWII. As the two players taunted each other online, Viner asked Barriss — a frequent hoax caller — to “swat” Gaskill’s house. Barriss then told Witchita police that there was a “hostage situation” taking place at an address obtained directly from Gaskill, who had openly challenged Barriss and Viner to “try some shit”.

The address provided by Gaskill was, however, his former address, which was now occupied by Finch’s mother. And thus, wrongfully believing an armed man was about to kill himself and his family, the police arrived at Finch’s home and took immediate, deadly response. Finch was unarmed when he opened his front door, and Rapp did not identify himself before opening fire on the father, who died at the scene.

In 2019,