Kansas fatal swatting suspect Tyler Barriss opens up in jail interview

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A man suspected of causing a swatting incident that led to another man's death in Kansas talked about his arrest during a jailhouse interview.

Tyler Barriss said he wished none of it ever happened.

"I never intended for anyone to get shot and killed. I just wish I could have rewound somehow and just never done it," he said.

He added that he understood the magnitude of his actions.

Barris, 25, was arrested in December on suspicion of making a hoax phone call to police in Wichita, Kansas. Authorities said that prank call involved a made-up story about a shooting and kidnapping, which resulted in the death of 28-year-old Andrew Finch.

In a recording of the call, a man told dispatch he shot his father in the head and was holding his mother and a sibling at gunpoint. The person also threatened to light the house on fire. That hoax call resulted in SWAT officers swarming the Kansas home.

When Finch exited to home to see the response, he followed commands, but at one point he moved his hand toward his waistband, authorities said, which led to an officer firing a single shot. Finch died at the hospital and was unarmed.

During a court appearance, Barriss waived his right to an extradition hearing and eventually taken to jail in Kansas.

He was arraigned earlier this week and charged with involuntary manslaughter.

Barriss has been linked to other swatting incidents, including a conviction for making a false bomb threat to ABC7 in October 2015. Police in Calgary, Canada, also linked him to a call made in the city on Dec. 22, 2017.

That call involved a man claiming he had shot his father and was again holding his mother and a young sibling hostage. Police responded to the address and eventually determined the woman living at that address was not part of any incident described in the call.

During the jail interview, Barriss said people have paid him to make swatting calls, but refused to say if that was the case in the Kansas incident. He added there's never a motive for the hoax calls he made.

"There's no inspiration. I don't get bored and decide to make a SWAT call," he said.

But Kansas authorities believe Finch was targeted over an argument about an online game, and Calgary authorities believe the woman was also targeted for her "online persona."

If Barriss is convicted as charged, he faces 11 years in prison. He is being held on $500,000 bail.