Swatting is no joke.

Troy Livingston, the deputy police chief of Wichita, Kansas, told Wichita Eagle that a 28-year-old man, Andrew Finch, was killed by a police officer after he and his team was called to Finch’s place as someone reported that a murder and hostage situation was happening there. (It was a false report.) The whole event might have started out from two Call of Duty players, Miruchle and Baperizer, team mates during a match, were losing in a match for some money (1150 dollars).

This tweet states that Baperizer asked another player, Swautistic, to pull off the swatting. Miruchle challenged him, but he gave the wrong address (it was Finch’s address), which cost Andrew Finch’s life. His family says that Andrew wasn’t even armed (or playing) when he opened the door. The officer that pulled the trigger was sent to a paid leave. Other players, such as this one, also encountered swatting.

KWCH News reports that a 25-year-old man, Tyler Bariss, was arrested in Los Angeles due to being possibly related to this event. In October 2015, he made two fake bomb threats against ABC Studios in Glendale, California. Central Track adds that he might have tried the same threats against a Call of Duty: WWII event in Dallas, Texas. He wasn’t named, but the report indicates that Swautistic claimed responsibility for „ruining the whole event” on Twitter.

Swatting is, indeed, not a joke.

Source: PC Gamer