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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Suspect in Deadly Fake 911 Call Waives Extradition

A 25-year-old Los Angeles man suspected of making a fake 911 call that resulted in the fatal police shooting of a Kansas man waived extradition in LA criminal court on Wednesday.

LOS ANGELES – A 25-year-old Los Angeles man suspected of making a fake 911 call that resulted in the fatal police shooting of a Kansas man waived extradition in LA criminal court on Wednesday.

Police suspect Tyler Barriss made a false 911 call about a shooting and kidnapping situation at a home in Wichita, Kansas – an internet prank known as “swatting” because of the call’s intent to elicit a SWAT team response. The call resulted in officers surrounding the home of Andrew Finch, 27, who was shot and killed shortly before 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 28.

Barriss appeared before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Deborah Brazil on Wednesday morning just before 10 a.m., dressed in a black hoodie and in handcuffs. He briefly answered Brazil’s questions about waiving his right to extradition. No bail was set on Wednesday morning.

In audio released by the Wichita Police Department, a dispatcher questioned a man on the phone on Dec. 28. The person on the phone said he shot his father in the head during an argument with his mother. The dispatcher then asked him if he still had the gun.

“Are you sending someone over here? Because I’m definitely not going to put the gun away,” the person on the phone answered.

The person on the phone provided the address of a home in Wichita, Kansas, where police shot and killed Finch on his front porch.

On Tuesday, Andrew Finch’s mother Lisa wrote a letter to the Wichita mayor and the police chief so she could see her son’s body and make funeral arrangements, according to the Associated Press. The family also wants the officer who fatally shot Andrew Finch to be charged.

The family is represented by Chicago civil rights lawyer Andrew Stroth, the AP said. Stroth did not immediately return a phone call requesting comment.

In May 2016, Barriss pleaded no contest to making a false bomb report to a TV station in Southern California. He was sentenced to two years and eight months in jail, according to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office.

Brazil said Barriss would be handed over to Kansas authorities no later than Feb. 2. Until then, he will remain in an LA County jail.

Categories / Criminal

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