After “swatting” death in Kansas, 25-year-old arrested in Los Angeles

Enlarge / A still from the Wichita Police footage of the shooting. (credit: Wichita Police Department)

The alleged "swatter" behind Thursday's police killing of a Wichita, Kansas, man has been arrested.

Tyler Barriss, a 25-year-old from South Los Angeles, was taken into custody Friday night, according to the local ABC News affiliate. (ABC also notes that "Glendale police arrested a 22-year-old man with the same name for making bomb threats to KABC-TV" back in 2015.) NBC News, speaking to unnamed local "sources" in LA, says that Barriss "had been living at a transitional recovery center."

Barriss is alleged to have called in a lengthy threat to Wichita police on Thursday night after a Call of Duty game in which two teammates got into an altercation over a $1.50 wager. Screenshots posted to various Twitter accounts show the dispute escalating. Shortly thereafter, the Wichita police received a call alleging that someone at that address had killed his father, taken his family hostage, poured gasoline around the home, and was ready to light it on fire. Cops descended on the area and cordoned it off. When 28-year-old Andrew Fitch opened the front door of his home to see why all the lights were flashing outside, he was shot and killed.

Read 13 remaining paragraphs | Comments