Andrew Finch, a 28-year-old uninvolved bystander, was shot and killed by Wichita police responding to a fake hostage call placed over a $1.50 online gaming dispute. The address used in the call had been deliberately given to the swatter as misinformation. Finch had no connection to anyone involved.
What happened
On December 28, 2017, Tyler Barriss placed a fake call to Wichita police claiming he had shot his father and was holding family members hostage at a Wichita address. The address had been provided to him by Casey Viner, who was in a Call of Duty: WWII online dispute over a $1.50 wager with Shane Gaskill. Gaskill had given Viner an address he no longer lived at: the home of Andrew Finch, who had no involvement in the dispute. Wichita police responded as if to an active hostage situation. When Finch stepped onto his front porch, an officer across the street fired a single shot and killed him. Barriss pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter and 50 other charges and was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. Viner was sentenced to 15 months and Gaskill to 18 months. The City of Wichita later approved a $5 million settlement with Finch's family.
How it started
The dispute began in an online Call of Duty: WWII match. Casey Viner and Shane Gaskill argued over a $1.50 wager. Gaskill, frustrated with Viner, deliberately gave him an old address: a home in Wichita where Gaskill had once lived and where Andrew Finch now lived with his family. Viner contacted Tyler Barriss, who had a history of placing swatting calls, and Barriss called in the fake hostage report using the address Gaskill had supplied.
Finch had no online presence connecting him to the dispute. He was a bystander by every measure.
What this means for you
Swatting works on one requirement: the caller needs an address that draws a police response. In the Finch case that address came from another gamer. For a first responder, it is more often pulled from a data broker page that lists a home address next to a name.
Removing your home address from broker pages takes away the input the call depends on. It does not stop someone from lying to a dispatcher. It does make your home harder to find and tie to you, which raises the effort required to place the call.
For more on the swatting threat and what to do if you have been swatted, see /swatting and /swatting/recovery.
What reduces this risk
The swatting call that led to Finch's death used a home address handed to the caller over a $1.50 dispute. Swatting depends on the attacker having an address that draws a police response. For officers, judges, and healthcare workers, that address is often listed on data broker pages next to their name. Removing a home address from those pages takes away the input the call relies on. It does not stop someone from lying to a dispatcher, but it makes the home harder to find and tie to you.
Public sources
- 2017 Wichita swatting — Wikipedia, 2026-04-01
- Serial 'swatter' Tyler Barriss sentenced to 20 years for death of Kansas man shot by police — NBC News, 2019-03-29
- Man Who Made Fatal 'Swatting' Hoax Call Pleads Guilty To 51 Charges — NPR, 2018-11-14