Court document names gamers involved in fatal Wichita swatting incident

An affidavit released by Sedgwick County District Court on Friday identifies two gamers involved in the swatting incident that led to the fatal shooting of Andrew Finch by a Wichita police officer in late December.

The court document lays out the grounds for the arrest of Tyler Barriss, the 25-year-old California man who has been charged with involuntary manslaughter, reporting a false alarm and interference with a law enforcement officer in connection with calling Wichita police and claiming there was a homicide and hostage situation at 1033 W. McCormick on the night of Dec. 28.

Investigators learned that Shane Gaskill, who lives in Wichita, was involved in an online video game with other people when he accidentally shot and killed one of his teammates in the online game. The teammate who was killed in the game became “extremely upset” and began talking trash to Gaskill, the affidavit says.

The dispute escalated until the teammate, who the document identifies as Casey Viner of North College Hill, Ohio, threatened via Twitter to “SWATT” Gaskill, according to the affidavit.

Gaskill replied, “Please try some s---.”

He then posted the address 1033 W. McCormick in Wichita.

Investigators were contacted by people who told of seeing tweets between Viner and another person using the Twitter name Infamy Runs Xbl@SWAuTistic, who was later identified as Barriss.

Barriss tweeted, “That kids house I swatted is on the news.”

An FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force officer matched Barriss’ voice from the 911 call to Wichita with calls in Glendale, Calif., that made a false bomb report in 2015.

Barriss is being held on $500,000 bond in the Sedgwick County Jail.

This story was originally published January 26, 2018 at 6:13 PM with the headline "Court document names gamers involved in fatal Wichita swatting incident."