Call of Duty police killing in 2017 swatting settled for $5 million

Police detective Justin Rapp killed 28-year-old Andrew Finch in 2017 on the front porch of his house in what’s now known as the United States’ first fatal swatting incident. According to The Wichita Eagle, the $5 million settlement reached by Rapp’s federal suit against Wichita City Council was finalized last week.

This lawsuit had been ongoing since 2005 before the City Council voted 6-1 to approve the settlement.

“It has been difficult to say the very least,” AlmaAnn Jones, spokesperson for the Finch family, told The Wichita Eagle. “I’ve watched this family go through disappointment after disappointment after disappointment and finally today we came together as a community. We got this done.”

Police were called to Finch’s house after California man Tyler Barriss made a false report to police which claimed a person in the house had killed someone and was holding others hostage. Barriss made this call to police over the phone. Duty callThis is WWIICasey Viner was one of the Call of Duty gamers in the match and recruited Viner as his replacement. Viner supplied Barriss with an address that was believed to belong to Shane Gaskill. Finch didn’t know the men and wasn’t aware of the police swatting call. Viner was sentenced for 15 months. Barriss will spend 20 years behind bars.

Finch was killed by Rapp, even though he was not armed or threatened officers. The Wichita Eagle reports that Rapp wasn’t investigated by police because of policy violations. Rapp was then promoted to detective.

Wichita, the insurance company that will be covering the balance of $2 million in settlement costs, will provide the funds.

The killing brought a national light to the ugly practice of swatting, an unfortunate and dangerous “prank” with a history in gaming culture. It’s used as a way to harass others, and it has been increasingly common for people to swat Twitch streamers. A notorious 2021 swat streamer was discovered. Rainbow Six Siege cheater made a fake report to swat developer Ubisoft Montreal’s city office.