‘It’s surreal to think it could have been my house,’ neighbor to Andrew Finch says

Nicole Davis’ 12-year-old son had taken their trash outside minutes before she heard the gunshot that killed Andrew Finch on Thursday.

She looked outside the window of her second-floor duplex and saw officers in her driveway, and along West McCormick at the Seneca intersection. What she witnessed was the aftermath of a fatal police shooting that followed a false report of a homicide and hostage situation inside the house.

Davis lives across the street.

A body cam video released by Wichita police on Friday afternoon records the shooting from an officer near the one who fired the shot, Deputy Chief Troy Livingston said.

The officer is standing in Davis’ driveway and is taking cover behind a car.

“I didn’t realize anything was happening until I heard the shot,” Davis said. “It was right outside my window. I looked outside and saw a female officer with a handgun. There were officers with long guns, too.”

Tyler Barriss, 25, of California, is accused of making the fake call to police as part of a swatting incident. He was arrested Friday afternoon in Los Angeles.

Swatting is the term used when someone makes a call to a police department with a false story of an ongoing crime – often involving killing or hostages – in an attempt to draw police officers to a particular address.

The incident started with a competitive Call of Duty game with a $1.50 wager, according to online gamers who have reached out to The Eagle. Finch had not been involved in the game, they said.

In this case, the caller told Wichita 911 that he had shot his father in the head and was holding his mother and a sibling hostage. He gave 911 Finch’s address, acted as if he was in the house, and told the dispatcher that he had a black handgun and he was not going to put it down.

When police arrived, Livingston said, they believed Finch was the armed person who called 911.

Davis said she didn’t hear officers shouting commands at Finch to raise his hands, but multiple officers could be heard yelling at Finch in the 7-second body camera footage. Livingston said the man raised and lowered his arms multiple times. On the last time, he raised them suddenly. Livingston said the officer in Davis’ driveway thought Finch had reached into his pants for a handgun, and fired one shot.

After the shooting, a short video Davis took on her cellphone shows officers running to the porch where Finch lay. They can also be heard shouting commands at people inside the house, which included his mother, 17-year-old niece and a roommate, his family has said.

Davis said she’s still trying to wrap her mind around what happened.

“It’s surreal to think it could have been my house,” she said. “If the caller just gave one different number. My son had been outside right before it happened.”

She said her son plays video games, and though she has talked to him about internet safety before, they had another discussion.

“It’s scary that someone thought this was a prank,” she said.

This story was originally published December 30, 2017 at 6:16 PM with the headline "‘It’s surreal to think it could have been my house,’ neighbor to Andrew Finch says."