The teenager responsible for the fatal “swatting” incident that left another dead has been sentenced to 15 months in prison and been banned from gaming for two years.
Swatting, a practice that has unfortunately become pretty popular in the gaming community, is when someone makes a fake emergency call and directs law enforcement to someone else’s house to get them to show up unexpectedly, especially while the victim is in the middle of a stream.
Nineteen-year-old Casey Viner hired someone else to make such a call after becoming upset by the loss of a $1.50 bet stemming from a session of Call of Duty WW2. The call resulted in 28-year-old Wichita, Kansas resident Andrew Finch losing his life. Viner attempted to hide his involvement during investigations but was eventually found out. He pleaded guilty to felony charges of conspiracy and obstruction of justice back in April.
His lawyers tried getting him two years of probation but, per NBC, US District Judge Eric Melgren handed him a 15-month jail sentence, as well as a two-year ban from any gaming activities.
This seems like a slap on the wrist when you take the fact that someone lost their life into consideration. Meanwhile, 26-year-old Los Angeles resident Tyler Barriss, the one who actually made the call, was sentenced to 20 years in prison earlier this year.
Finch’s death did a lot to bring swatting to the media’s attention and perhaps there is something positive to take from it. The 28-year-old had nothing to do with the dispute and was simply unfortunate to be living where 20-year-old gamer Shane Gaskill resided previously.
Gaskill was charged as a co-conspirator after knowingly giving both Viner and Barriss his old Wichita address and taunting the latter to “try something.”
Barriss, a notorious swatter, called the police from Los Angeles on December 28, 2017, and falsely reported a shooting and kidnapping at the Wichita address. Finch was fatally shot by police who went to the scene in response to the call when he opened the door to see what was going on.
Source: NBC
