US “Swatting” - Man killed by police as result of “prank”

[Andy_T]

Tragic story ... Father of two killed by police in his own house as result of “prank”

Deadly Police Shooting May Have Been Result of Online Gaming Prank

Deputy Police Chief Troy Livingston said the shooting happened Thursday while an officer was responding to a report that a father had been shot in the head and that the shooter was holding his mother, brother and sister hostage, The Wichita Eagle reports. Livingston said a 28-year-old man was shot as he came to the front door. Livingston said that when officers got inside the house, they didn’t find anyone with gunshot wounds.

Alleged swatting hoax ends in the death of a father of two (updated)

Here's what seems to have gone down. Two individuals were playing Call of Duty and got into an argument online over a game with a $1.50 wager. One of them, a person with the Twitter handle @SWauTistic, threatened to swat user @7aLeNT. The latter then provided an address that wasn't actually their own in response to the threat. Shortly thereafter, @SWauTistic allegedly called in the false report, which led to a police response at the provided address. Andrew Finch, who lived at the address, reportedly went to the front door in response to the commotion and was shot. "As he came to the front door, one of our officers discharged his weapon," said Livingston.

Does it get any better? The person who called in the fake hostage taking even gave an interview to a youtube “Drama station” claiming that “there are many people to blame” ...

Supposedly he has also called in already a number of bomb threats and “swattings” in exchange for money sent to him via paypal, and bragged about it on Twitter repeatedly.

Spoiler: interview

Longer story ... Kansas Man Killed In ‘SWATting’ Attack — Krebs on Security

Was supposedly arrested since then...

 

[Mischief]

Something very bad should happen to this guy.

The police are to blame too.

It's just horrible all around.

 

[Andy_T]

I guess the best recourse for the family of the killed man will be to sue Twitter for 100 million $ or so, as the whole communication seems to have been done via their medium and they obviously allowed the user “SWAuTistic” to brag about his earlier bomb threats and other “swattings” there... so irate game players knew who to call in case of their “disputes”.

I certainly hope that police also arrest the third person involved who “egged on” the “swatter” and gave the address of the innocent victim...