Swatting Coordinated Through Online Communities: the Wichita Death of Andrew Finch

Swatting — placing a false emergency call to send armed police to a victim's address — escalated into a deadly phenomenon driven by online gaming and forum disputes. On December 28, 2017, an argument over a roughly $1.50 wager in Call of Duty: WWII between gamers Casey Viner and Shane Gaskill escalated when Viner enlisted Tyler Barriss, a known online 'swatter,' to target Gaskill. Gaskill gave a false address in Wichita, Kansas. Barriss called the Wichita Police Department using VoIP, falsely claiming he had shot his father and was holding family members hostage. Police responded, and an officer fatally shot Andrew Finch, a 28-year-old uninvolved resident, as he stepped onto his porch.

In March 2019, Barriss was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison after pleading guilty — believed to be the longest sentence imposed for swatting. Casey Viner received 15 months and Shane Gaskill 18 months for their roles. The case crystallized how disputes incubated in online communities and gaming networks could be weaponized into lethal real-world police responses.

Swatting as a practice was discussed, threatened, and at times coordinated across many online venues, with Reddit being one of several platforms where swatting was talked about and threatened against streamers and other users. The reporting on the Finch case ties the coordination specifically to gaming chat and direct online contact rather than to a particular subreddit; Reddit's role is best characterized as one of several broader online communities where swatting culture circulated, not as the proximate organizing venue for this incident.