Notorious "swatter" gets 20 years behind bars

[poohbear]

Anyone remember the police quest games where there was a SWAT version and they had the head of LA SWAT intro the game and said the purpose of SWAT was to save lives, and if lives were lost then that incident is considered a failure. Taking a man's like is a LAST resort. WTF did that cop shoot an innocent man and not get any punishment???

 

[ghostf1re]

Call me ignorant if you want, but IMO an armored SWAT team can wait to see an actual weapon before opening fire. I'd also want to see for example body cam footage and form my own opinion on the alleged "waistband" motion vs. accept the word of the guy who clearly screwed up on interpreting it if it even existed in the first place.

More generally, any system in which an ordinary person can be shot for opening their front door is flawed on its face.

But I agree the officer likely did not start his day wanting to murder someone, did not commit murder in the sense that word is generally used, and that our system needs to understand that no one doing any demanding job is consistently perfect. That means being able to call a mistake a mistake without it being a murder charge (which is what leads to people being so defensive about obvious screw ups and therefore prevents the system from working on improving itself like it should.)

This is just about the only logical comment I've seen on here with basically everyone else here hating on law enforcement. No one here knows what it's like to be in the position of a law enforcement officer and to assume you know exactly what happened that day when that door was opened is ridiculous.

 

[havok585]

Lmao, only in dear old USA

Protect and serve eih ?! Altough the pranksters deserves some cooling off in a dark space somewhere ( 20 years is absurd, he did not kill anyone) and then there is the usual police/swat/fbi whatever you want that will shoot first, ASK questions later;

You know, in civilized countries you ask/enforce first before engaging in the last option (the most undesirable one);

Until US police doesnt change it's ways of how to interact with it's citizens, in these dreadful situations, it will always be like this, innocent people dying.

 

[Joe Seijo]

What did the officer see, or claim he saw, that justified shooting a regular dude opening his front door?

An opportunity.

 

[gamerk2]

The root problem is the "I felt threatened" defense is enough to get at least one person on every jury to vote to not convict. The in turn leads to police being taught to shoot first if there is any question of danger, which leads to situations exactly like this one.

As long as "I felt threatened" is sufficient legal defense, this will continue to happen. Basically, "stand your ground" for cops.

 

[sac39507]

This story makes it seem like Swat and Police must be stupid. Honestly, isn't it protocol to assess the situation before taking any use of force action? Shouldn't they smoke the place, tear gas the crap out of it, and then force themselves in? That's how it's done in the movies at least. This seem like it could've been avoided and the department simply did not follow protocol and really did not use common sense.

 

[Capaill]

If Shane Gaskill gets a sentence as a conspirator, then US law is truly f-d up. In my view, he is not guilty of anything. But Casey Viner is indeed 100% a conspirator on this, and should get a proper sentence.

And Tyler Barriss now will be having daily swat visits for 20 years, well deserved.

"when an argument about friendly-fire culminated in Viner threatening to ‘swat’ Gaskill. Gaskill tauntingly provided an address, but unbeknownst to Viner, it was a previous home."

So Gaskill gets threatened with Swatting and provides an address that he does not live at. And you think he should get off scott free? He's as guilty as Viner. Viner might have been the one that pulled the trigger on the Swatting but Gaskill aimed that gun.

 

[VitalyT]

"when an argument about friendly-fire culminated in Viner threatening to ‘swat’ Gaskill. Gaskill tauntingly provided an address, but unbeknownst to Viner, it was a previous home."

So Gaskill gets threatened with Swatting and provides an address that he does not live at. And you think he should get off scott free? He's as guilty as Viner. Viner might have been the one that pulled the trigger on the Swatting but Gaskill aimed that gun.

This was simply an instant response to somebody's stupid rant, like Viner's in this case, without giving it much thought, while the rest was premeditated, of which Gaskill was no part of. Gaskill did not point any gun, that's a ridiculous analogy.

 

[ManuelV]

Read the original article. When SWAT is called in it is considered life or death and they have full authorization to use deadly force, presumably to save a person life. The *****s that played this deadly game are lucky to have only received 20 years ..... Just goes to show that people that pull stupid stunts will and should pay the price, especially when it costs an innocent person their life.

So, if someone call the swats to your home/car/apartment/yard you are dead no matter what?, they should charge for that.

 

[Capaill]

This was simply an instant response to somebody's stupid rant, like Viner's in this case, without giving it much thought, while the rest was premeditated, of which Gaskill was no part of. Gaskill did not point any gun, that's a ridiculous analogy.

If he was giving it no thought, he'd have given his own address or no address. He clearly suspected the other guy MIGHT go through with it and KNOWINGLY gave somebody else's address. He CANNOT get off scott free in this. My analogy stands.

 

[VitalyT]

If he was giving it no thought, he'd have given his own address or no address. He clearly suspected the other guy MIGHT go through with it and KNOWINGLY gave somebody else's address. He CANNOT get off scott free in this. My analogy stands.

Following your logic, if some a-hole asks your real name, and you do not want to do anything with him, you give him a false name just to get rid of him, and then next moment you are a crime conspirator? Don't even go there! He lied without any malicious intent.