An Ohio gamer has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for his involvement in a prank call to the police, also known as ‘Swatting’, resulting in the death of a Kansas father who had no involvement in the dispute and was not even a known gamer.
Swatting is “the action or practice of making a hoax call to the emergency services in an attempt to bring about the dispatch of a large number of armed police officers to a particular address.”
Casey Viner was playing a game of Call Of Duty: WW2, and after losing a bet of $1.50 in a match, a disagreement started between his teammate, Shane Gaskill. Viner then hired Tyler Barris to make the swatting call on Gaskill. The call was made with false information given by Gaskill and lead to the death of 28-year old Andrew Finch. Back in April, Viner pleaded guilty to felony charges of conspiracy and obstruction of justice after trying to hide his involvement during a police investigation.
Viner’s lawyers recommended that a two years’ probation be put in place, but according to NBC report, the U.S. District Judge Eric Melgren sentenced Viner to 15 months of prison, as well as a two-year ban on gaming.
Viner’s teammate, Shane Gaskill, who gave the false information and was the other half in the dispute is yet to be convicted or charged but could be facing 60 years in prison for his involvement.
The 911 caller, Tyler Barris, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in March for his involvement in the swatting.
Tyler Barris (above) was a ‘serial swatter,’ and essentially a swat-for-hire. Known online as “SWAuTistic,” Barris had a large criminal history, serving 16 months in Los Angeles County Jail for making false bomb threats against KABC-TV, an elementary school in Los Angeles, and a middle school in Granada Hills. He was wanted by police for calling approximately 30 other bomb threats including one to a high school, and on fraud and mischief charges in Canada for harassing a woman in Calgary.
Only weeks prior to the incident, he allegedly made threats by phone regarding explosives in the headquarters of the Federal Communications Commission and of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
