LA Man Arrested For Swatting That Led Police To Kill Innocent Man

LOS ANGELES, CA — Police Saturday said they have arrested a 25-year-old South Los Angeles man for his suspected role in a "swatting" prank that led to the police shooting death of an innocent man in Wichita, Kansas on Thursday.

Tyler Raj Barriss was arrested on a fugitive warrant related to the Thursday shooting in Kansas, said Officer Mike Lopez of the LAPD's Media Relations Division.

Barriss was arrested at 3:15 p.m. Friday and was being held without bail, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Inmate Information Center.

Wichita Deputy Police Chief Troy Livingston told reporters that the "swatting" or hoax call, in which someone makes a false report of a serious crime to authorities, prompted a SWAT team to be dispatched to a home that the caller described as the site of a shooting and kidnapping.

In the 911 call, a man said his father had been shot in the head and that he was holding his mother and a sibling at gunpoint. The caller, speaking with relative calm, said he poured gasoline inside the home "and I might just set it on fire."

Officers surrounded the home and when the shooting victim, Andrew Finch, 28, went to the front door he was ordered to put his hands up and move slowly. Livingston said Finch moved a hand toward the area of his waistband and an officer, fearing that he was reaching for a gun, fired a single shot. Finch, who was not armed, died a short time later at a hospital.

The officer, a seven-year veteran of the department, was on paid leave pending an investigation.

Several online publications are reporting that the prank originated in a dispute between two sets of gamers playing Call of Duty online, with one group contacting a third party -- allegedly Barriss -- to perform the fake call, "swatting" the other group. Finch's family said he did not play video games, and was an innocent victim.

The e-sports website Dexerto.com posted audio of what appears to be an interview with the swatter taken hours before Barriss' arrest in which he confesses to making the false call to police, but denies responsibility for Finch's death.

The interview, which could not be independently verified, can be heard on www.dexerto.com.

The site that hosted the online tournament expressed concern about the case Friday.

"We woke this morning to horrible news about an innocent man losing his life. Our hearts go out to his loved ones. We will do everything we can to assist authorities in this matter," UMG Events tweeted.

This is not Barriss' first brush with the law. In October 2015, he was arrested on suspicion of making bomb threats against ABC7, including one that forced the evacuation of its Glendale studio and sent station employees outside for the afternoon broadcast. Court records show that he later pleaded no contest to two counts of false report of a bomb.

Barriss could appear in court as early as Tuesday in relation to the Kansas case.

City News Service; Photo Shutterstock