Mother of man mistakenly shot in swatting case: City was 'dishonest with me'

The mother of the man mistakenly shot by Wichita police in an incident of “swatting” attended her first City Council meeting since the December shooting and had harsh criticism of the city as she left the meeting.

Lisa Finch, mother of Andrew Finch, didn’t speak during the meeting, but said outside the council chamber that city officials had lied to her. She demanded an independent investigation.

“The people in charge have been dishonest with me,” she said.

Andrew Finch, 28, was killed on the porch of his home on Dec. 28 by a police officer during an incident of “swatting”– a hoax designed to provoke a special weapons and tactics (or SWAT) team response to a nonexistent incident. A Los Angeles man, Tyler Barriss, 25, is accused of making the bogus call reporting a made-up murder and hostage situation that brought police to Finch’s door.

Lisa Finch said Mayor Jeff Longwell had issued a statement that his office had reached out to her and the family.

“That’s a lie,” she said.

Longwell later said his office didn’t send any statements out claiming to have reached out to the family.

"Anytime people are confused over just simple conversations, it troubles me,” Longwell said. “She thought that I sent out a statement or the mayor’s office sent out a statement. We didn’t. So that would imply some confusion there somewhere, wouldn’t it?”

Finch said the only outreach from the city came when Police Chief Gordon Ramsay came to her house in plain clothes.

She said he said that her son had been shot by mistake.

“He then asked me if I wanted to watch the video of my son being shot with him,” Lisa Finch said. “Why the (pause) would I want to watch video of my son being killed by a cop with a cop? It’s getting maddening.”

The family has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that police violated Andrew Finch’s rights.

Finch said the family members who were there the night of the shooting hadn’t been interviewed in the official investigation.

“If this is an investigation, why are they not speaking to us, the witnesses, the people that this affected the most?” she said. “This isn’t an investigation. It’s a sweep under the rug kind of deal.”

She also said the Kansas Bureau of Investigation is the wrong agency to conduct the inquiry into whether the officer who fired the fatal shot should be charged with a crime.

“KBI is one law enforcement investigating another law enforcement,” she said. “It would not be fair. I want a complete outside independent D.A. (district attorney) investigation. That’s the only way justice for all will be served.”

Longwell said he hasn’t discussed the investigation with the district attorney’s office, which will make the call on whether to file charges against the officer.

"I would encourage the D.A. to finalize his report as quickly as possible, but I have not had a conversation with him, ” Longwell said.

This story was originally published March 6, 2018 at 10:22 AM with the headline "Mother of man mistakenly shot in swatting case: City was 'dishonest with me'."