Wichita, home of fatal ‘swatting’ case, launches alert system for gamers and police

Wichita police will begin placing alerts on addresses where potential swatting targets could be living, the department announced Friday.

The program is voluntary and open to any person who thinks they could fall victim to swatting, a false report to law enforcement meant to draw a large police presence to a particular address. The practice has been growing in popularity on the fringes of the online gaming community, including a case in Wichita that ended in tragedy.

In Wichita’s swatting case, police shot an unwitting and unarmed man on his front porch after Tyler Barriss, 26, called from California and reported a murder and hostage situation at 1033 W. McCormick, the former address of a gamer involved an online dispute.

Read more at https://www.kansas.com/news/local/crime/article234309872.html