“SWATING” fatality

[HCM]

Family says son killed by police in ‘swatting’ was unarmed, didn’t play video games

On Thursday, Deputy Wichita Police Chief Troy Livingston said a substation received a call that there was a hostage situation in a house in the 1000 block of West McCormick — and that someone had been shot in the head.

“That was the information we were working off of,” he said, explaining that officers went to the house ready for a hostage situation and they “got into position.”

“A male came to the front door,” Livingston said Thursday night. “As he came to the front door, one of our officers discharged his weapon.”

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.”

“I DIDNT GET ANYONE KILLED BECAUSE I DIDNT DISCHARGE A WEAPON AND BEING A SWAT MEMBER ISNT MY PROFESSION,” said one gamer on Twitter, 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.” The person who was the target of the swatting gave the other gamer a false address, which sent police to Finch’s home instead of his own, according to Twitter posts.

Andrew Finch leaves behind two children – ages 2 and 7. He is from Virginia and the family moved to Wichita in the mid-1990s.

http://www.kansas.com/news/local/cri...192147194.html

Pretty random. Not only did the suspect engage in SWATting, but SWAT’ed the wrong house.

[HCM]

Additional info including body cam footage of the shooting and the 911 call which intiated the incident.

http://www.kansas.com/news/local/cri...192244734.html

The caller is on the line with 911 dispatchers for several minute giving a detailed description of the shooting, having a handgun, claiming to be holding his mother and little brother hostage in a closet and claiming to have doused the house with gasoline.

At 6:18 p.m., an officer working at City Hall received a call from an unknown man who said there was a disturbance with his father. When dispatchers spoke with the caller, he said he got into an argument with his mother and shot his father.

“They were arguing and I shot him in the head, and he’s not breathing anymore,” the caller said.

Asked if he had any weapons on him, the caller said, “Yeah I do.”

He then said he was standing by his mother’s closet holding a black handgun.

“I’m just pointing the gun at them, making sure they stay in the closet,” the caller said.

When the dispatcher asked if he could put the gun down, he said no. He then made further threats.

“I already poured gasoline all over the house, I might just set it on fire,” he told the dispatcher. “Do you have my address correct?”

He then described a one-story house and again said his father wasn’t breathing.

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.

This is, Livingston said, the first time in his memory that Wichita police have dealt with a “swatting” call. If they have happened before, Livingston said, they didn’t rise to this level.

“This prank phone call, we don’t see it as a prank,” he said. “It only heightened the awareness of the officers, which we think led to this deadly encounter.”


Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/local/cri...#storylink=cpy

[TheNewbie]

How do these people find your address? I see the false address in this , but in the other swatting cases.

[WobblyPossum]

Body cam footage from across the street released: http://www.kansas.com/news/local/cri...192244734.html

It does appear that the victim lowered his hands to the area of his waistband and suddenly brought them back up, pointed towards officers. A tragedy all around. I couldn’t tell if the shot came from the officer whose footage was shown. I wonder if he could effectively PID what was in the victims hands from that range. Makes me really want a LPVO on my patrol rifle.


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[voodoo_man]

Body cam footage from across the street released: http://www.kansas.com/news/local/cri...192244734.html

It does appear that the victim lowered his hands to the area of his waistband and suddenly brought them back up, pointed towards officers. A tragedy all around. I couldn’t tell if the shot came from the officer whose cottage was shown. I wonder if he could effectively PID what was in the victims hands from that range. Makes me really want a LPVO on my patrol rifle.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Looks like just over 50m, difficult to PID anything with certainty in a hand.

[jellydonut]

That does look exactly like a two-hand draw stroke to my eyes, although the video is pretty grainy. You have to wonder what that guy was thinking.

[WobblyPossum]

That does look exactly like a two-hand draw stroke to my eyes, although the video is pretty grainy. You have to wonder what that guy was thinking.

He was probably pretty confused about why he had a SWAT team surrounding his house. The yelling of commands and high lumen lights being shined in his face added to the confusion. Like most people, he likely didn’t know much about the legalities of use of force law or the safest way to interact with police. For all we know, the reason he jerked his hands up quickly was because he realized he had lowered them contrary to the commands he was hearing and didn’t want to get shot so he brought them back up as quick as he could.


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[blues]

What a complete and utter clusterfuck. I think anyone responsible for generating these events should be publicly drawn and quartered.


My heart, naturally, goes out to the needlessly deceased (and family) and the officers who will have to live with this scar on their psyche for years to come.

Tragic.

[Jason M]

Body cam footage from across the street released: http://www.kansas.com/news/local/cri...192244734.html

It does appear that the victim lowered his hands to the area of his waistband and suddenly brought them back up, pointed towards officers. A tragedy all around. I couldn’t tell if the shot came from the officer whose footage was shown. I wonder if he could effectively PID what was in the victims hands from that range. Makes me really want a LPVO on my patrol rifle.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah, I agree about the gear upgrades. I just bumped my 300lumen Scout light for a more powerful version. The T1 is going to be swapped out for an LVPO as soon as I can swing it.

[JohnO]

In 2008 a regional SWAT team killed a guy in Easton, CT under highly dubious circumstances. The victims family has since been awarded $3.5 million. The cop who shot the guy received the "officer of the year award". This all came about because the victim was an undesirable guy living in an affluent neighborhood. $1.5 million to the homeowner.

https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/...191946981.html

http://fox61.com/2015/09/23/victim-o...aid-gets-1-5m/