Swatting death call suspect threatened to kill grandmother

WICHITA, Kan. — A man accused of making a hoax emergency call that led to the fatal police shooting of a Kansas man once threatened to kill his grandmother in 2015 if she reported him for phoning in a false bomb threat to a television station in Glendale, California, according to news reports and court documents.

Tyler Barriss, 25, is accused of calling 911 last week with a fake story about a shooting and kidnapping at a Wichita home. The call was a case of “swatting,” in which a person makes up a false report to get a SWAT team to descend on an address. Police shot 28-year-old Andrew Finch when the unarmed Wichita man came to his door.

Barriss earlier pleaded no contest in a separate case on May 10, 2016, to one felony count each of false report of bomb to agency or business and malicious informing of false bomb in California. He was sentenced to two years and eight months in jail, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office.

The Wichita Eagle reports that his 62-year-old grandmother wrote in a domestic violence case seeking a restraining order California court that Barris had made “constant threats to beat my face bloody.”

He also allegedly made death threats against the woman, along with threats to destroy her home and dogs. He was ordered to move out of the house they shared and stay away from her, her home, her dogs, workplace and vehicle, according to the document. The order was later dismissed when he and his grandmother missed a court hearing.

The LA Times reported that Barriss threatened his grandmother to prevent her from reporting he had called in false bomb threats.

Barriss told a California judge at extradition hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday that he would not fight efforts to send him to Wichita to face charges in the swatting case.