A game of Call of Duty and a prank call ends in tragedy.
After five years of intense legal dispute, the family of a 28 year old who was murdered by mistake by the police in Wichita, Kansas (USA), will receive million-dollar compensation. The facts date back to 2017, when a dispute between several Call of Duty players over a debt of $1.50 led one of the users to make “swatting” to another, which ended up triggering Andrew Finch, that was his name, to end up being shot down by the police without even being involved in the matter. Police believed he was in a hostage situation.
“Swatting” was a practice of mockery and intimidation on the network that was very popular a few years ago, and it is nothing other than making fake calls to the police to denounce cases of extreme crimes, for which the SWAT shows up without warning and armed to the teeth, fearing they will encounter high voltage situations. Taking into account the rates of police brutality and the number of civilian deaths because of law enforcement officers, there is every reason to think that one of these “prank calls” could end in a real tragedy.
A joke out of control, a million-dollar compensation and the discredit of the Police
As we can read through Kotaku, Finch’s family will finally be compensated with 5 million dollars, one of the largest ever granted in the State of Kansas. Given the particular demand of the family, and involved in a scandal over racist text messages between the police force of the Swat and jokes about killing people, the city of Wichita accepted the procedure by withdrawing from police officer Justin Rapp the supposed immunity that prevented him from legally answering for Finch’s death.
The Swats came to Finch’s house that night because of Tyler Barriss, a well-known “swatter” with a long history of false calls to the Police. On this occasion, he claimed that a violent hostage situation was taking place at Finch’s house. The trigger for this event dates back to a Call of Duty game in which two players, Casey Viner and Shane Gaskill, only $1.50 was bet. After refusing to pay, Barriss asked Gaskill for his address to “swatt” him, but it was not his address that he gave her, but Finch’s, with the intention of to “try some shit”according to the court report.
That same night, the police surrounded Finch’s house and when he opened the door, disoriented by the situation, he was shot by officer Justin Rapp because, according to him, I thought he was going to pull out a gun. Rapp was the only one who got out of the situation, even was promoted later. Barriss was sentenced to 20 years in prisonViner was sentenced to 15 months and Gaskill was placed on deferred trial.
While the cases of “swatting” have multiplied in recent years, videojuegos have once again been dotted with topics that have nothing to do with this electronic entertainment. Call of Duty is also lately in the media spotlight for being the Apple of discord in Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard. While new details of Call of Duty 2024 are already being revealed, Microsoft and Sony are still in contention over Call of Duty.