It's likely that many members of the gaming community are familiar with the story of Andrew Finch, an innocent 28-year-old father of two who was fatally shot by police in a Swatting attempt gone wrong. Referred to as the 2017 Wichita Swatting, this incident resulted in the arrest of Tyler Barriss for calling SWAT on Finch, but now Barriss has received 46 additional charges.

The 2017 Wichita Swatting began with an argument on Call of Duty: World War II over a $1.50 bet. Barriss called the police an individual that he thought was his opponent but instead belonged to Finch, an innocent bystander.

Now, these new charges suggest Barriss - who intends to plead guilty - had been pulling online "pranks" like this for some time. In fact, Barriss admitted to a September/October 2015 charge for calling in bomb threats to schools. Barris claims he made the call because he wanted to give his online Halo friends a day off of school.

Other charges being filed against Barriss by federal prosecutors include calling police in Massachusetts and claiming to have planted a bomb at a local TV station and swatting people in Milford, Connecticut; Avon, Indiana; and Cincinnati, Ohio. He has also received payments of $10 for some of the swatting calls from online associates.

It's worth mentioning that the 2017 Wichita Swatting incident resulted in Kansas governor Jeff Colyer signing the Andrew T. Finch bill, in which the maximum penalty for swatting increased to 41 years. The bill, of course, was named in honor of the innocent, uninvolved man who lost his life as a result of this online "prank."

Tyler Barriss (25) is expected to plead guilty. Co-defendants Casey Viner (18) and Shane Gaskill (19) have pleaded non-guilty.

Source: Wired