Back in 2017, a dispute between two Call of Duty players resulted in the death of one Kansas man through a swatting incident. To make matters worse, the victim was not a part of the altercation, but lived at the old address of one of the players. The perpetrator was arrested in January of last year and while he has been convicted of his crimes, it has only been just recently that the man was sentenced.

A recent report reveals that California resident Tyler R. Barriss is now looking at 20 years in jail for the crime of making numerous fake emergency calls to authorities across the United States, including the incident in which the 28 year old Andrew Finch was shot and killed. The decision was made by U.S. District Judge Eric Melgren after Barriss plead guilty to the total of 51 federal charges of fake calls and threats. The two players who were involved in the aforementioned Call of Duty dispute, Shane Gaskill, who recruited Barriss, and Casey Viner who provided his old address that was used in the swatting incident. Both of these men are also being charged with the crime of co-conspiracy in the death of Finch.

For those unaware as to what “swatting” is, this criminal harassment tactic is referred to as the act of deceiving an emergency service such as police and emergency response personnel to another person’s address. This is triggered by convincing a dispatcher that an emergency such as a bomb threat, active shooting, or hostage situation is underway. U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister has expressed a strong disdain for the practice of swatting and hopes that this incident will be a warning to future swatting.

We hope that this will send a strong message about swatting, which is a juvenile and senseless practice. We’d like to put an end to it within the gaming community and in any other contact. Swatting, as I’ve said before, is not a prank.”

Swatting is an ugly practice, and one that has seen a huge spike in popularity over the past several years, but perhaps this incident will be the beginning of the end of the harassment tactic.

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