2017 Wichita swatting

Wichita Police Department officers, who were not SWAT team members, untrained for tactical situations or hostage rescues,[9] responded to Barriss's call and surrounded Finch's residence. Before the police presence was announced, Andrew Finch is reported by his mother Lisa Finch, who was at the scene, to have opened the front door "because he heard something." Mrs. Finch reports that her 28-year-old son "screamed and then they shot him". Moments after Finch stepped onto his front porch, police ordered him to put his hands up. According to officer testimony, he began to do so and then stopped. A Wichita police officer standing on the other side of the street fired a single round[10] from a Colt AR-15, striking Finch and piercing his heart and right lung.[11] Finch was transported to St. Francis Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Finch's mother reports the police then ordered her and other family members to exit the residence. The family was handcuffed and taken to the police station for questioning. Initial reports from Deputy Wichita Police Chief Troy Livingston stated that "A male came to the front door. As he came to the front door, one of our officers discharged his weapon." Livingston did not initially state if Finch was armed, or what caused the officer to fire his weapon. In a later statement on December 30, the Wichita Police Department stated the shooting was caused by Finch "reaching into his waistband".[12] The officer involved was eventually identified as Justin Rapp, a seven-year veteran of the force.[13]

In court, Rapp testified in May 2018 that he was given no information when he arrived at the scene, including when Finch was given his first verbal command, when the 911 call ended, or whether officers at the scene were aware the caller was still on the phone with 911.[14] Sedgwick County Department of Emergency Communications has also denied an open records request pertaining to the 911 call, stating the police department had asked that no more records be released.[15]

Many Wichita residents and other US-based commentators have expressed concern over the death of Finch.[16] Wichita residents used the opportunity of a city council meeting on January 9 to voice concerns on the subject, including questioning the release of only seven seconds of the police body cam footage, and arguing the city should assume full responsibility to avoid a lengthy struggle by the Finch family for justice. The council did not comment directly, but indicated a willingness to consider training procedures at a later time.[17]

Nearly a week after the shooting, Andrew Finch's mother Lisa Finch wrote to the Wichita mayor and police chief stating that she did not know where her son's body was being kept and that she wanted to give him a "proper funeral service and burial." "Please let me see my son's lifeless body," she wrote in a letter dated January 3. In the same letter, Mrs. Finch asked why the police officer who killed her son had not, at that time, been identified, why the family was handcuffed, and when police will return their belongings, including two cell phones and a computer, seized from the house. The family attorney, Andrew M. Stroth, has also called for the city, police department, and officer involved in the shooting to be held liable "for the unjustified shooting of Andrew Finch."[18]

Finch's 18-year-old niece Adelina, who had lived with Finch since 2002 and witnessed his death, committed suicide in 2019. Lisa Finch blames Adelina's death on the events of December 28.[19]

Barriss was arrested on December 29, 2017 in Los Angeles on a fugitive warrant stemming from a 2015 charge of making false bomb threats to KABC-TV, and was charged with false alarm, a felony. On January 12, 2018, Barriss was extradited to Kansas where he was charged with involuntary manslaughter and held in Sedgwick County Jail.[2]

On May 23, 2018, Barriss, Viner and Gaskill were indicted in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas on charges related to the swatting. Barriss was charged with false information and hoaxes, cyberstalking resulting in death, making threats of death or damage to property by fire, interstate threats, conspiracy to make false reports, and wire fraud. Viner was charged with wire fraud, conspiracy to make false/hoax reports, obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Gaskill was charged with obstruction of justice, wire fraud and conspiracy to obstruct justice. In July 2018, Gaskill was re-indicted on additional charges after it was discovered that he goaded Barriss to "try again" after the fatal shooting.[1][21]

On October 26, 2018, forty-six additional charges against Barriss were added, which included financial fraud, and fake threats of bombs and shootings made to police and schools; some of these charges involved unindicted co-conspirators residing in Des Plaines, Illinois; Gulf Breeze, Florida; Grand Rapids, Michigan; and Greenwood, Missouri. On November 13 he pleaded guilty to 51 federal charges, for which U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister recommended a sentence of 20 years' incarceration. Under the terms of the plea agreement, Barriss has also been required to formally apologize to Finch's family and pay $10,100 in fines and restitution, and has agreed to five years of supervised release.[22]

On March 29, 2019, Barriss was sentenced to 20 years in prison.[23]

In April 2019, Viner pleaded guilty to conspiracy and obstruction of justice. In September 2019, he received a 15-month prison sentence in addition to two years' probation, during which time he would be banned from playing video games.[24][25] Gaskill's case was originally scheduled to go to trial April 23, 2019; if convicted on all charges, he was facing over 60 years in prison.[26] In September 2019, it was reported that Gaskill struck a deal for deferred prosecution that could allow the charges against him to be dropped.[27]

Viner was assigned BOP #29251-031 and housed at USP Big Sandy and released on November 14 2020. Barriss is assigned BOP #29381-031 and is scheduled to be released from FCI Phoenix on January 14, 2035.