Mom of Wichita police ‘swatting’ victim offers advice, support to George Floyd family
Lisa Finch has a message for the family of George Floyd:
“Hang in there. You have more support than you can even imagine. It won’t bring your son back, but know that there are people out there that know exactly what you’re going through.”
Finch, of Wichita, has been crusading for police reform since Dec. 28, 2017, when her son, Andrew Finch, 28, was shot to death by Wichita police responding to a fake call of a murder/hostage situation at the Finch home.
On Tuesday, Finch said she sees parallels between what happened to her son and the Minneapolis police killing of Floyd, who died May 25 after an officer knelt on his neck for more than seven minutes. Police were detaining him on suspicion of trying to pass a fake $20 bill to buy cigarettes at a convenience store.
The Floyd death, viewed by hundreds of millions on TV and social media, has exploded in mass protests and sparked some rioting and opportunistic looting across the country.
In a news conference following a brief speech to the Wichita City Council on Tuesday, Finch told the Floyd family “Just don’t give up hope,” and invited them to contact her through Facebook if they want to talk.
Wichita Police Chief Gordon Ramsay has been in the forefront of law enforcement officials calling the Floyd death a murder and has participated in protests against police brutality in the wake of the killing.
Finch said she’s perplexed by that.
“I know Gordon Ramsay likened Mr. George Floyd’s death to murder and I beg City Council — I know they can’t speak to me directly — but to tell somebody what the difference is between Mr. Floyd’s death and that of my son’s, because it absolutely makes no sense at all to me. No sense at all,” she said.
The false call that led to Andrew Finch’s death drew national attention as the first documented fatal case of swatting, a hoax designed to provoke a special weapons and tactics (or SWAT) team response to a nonexistent incident.
The swatting stemmed from a dispute over a $1.50 wager on an online game of Call of Duty. No one in the Finch family had anything to do with the disputed game, but police were given their address because it was the former home of one of the gamers.
It was a triple tragedy for the Finch family.
Andrew Finch’s niece, 18-year-old Adelina Finch, fatally shot herself about a year after she witnessed her uncle’s death.
Her boyfriend, 20-year-old Jeremy “J.C.” Arnold, who found Adelina mortally wounded in their south Wichita apartment, shot himself to death about three months later
The officer who killed Finch, Justin Rapp, remains on the force and sued the department for prohibiting him from working off-duty private-security gigs during the investigation.
Passersby with cellphone cameras recorded the Floyd killing during which he pleaded with officers to ease up. His final words, “I can’t breathe,” have become a rallying cry for protest.
Andrew Finch was shot at the family home and the only video that has been made public are a few distant and grainy clips from police body cameras.
“Mr. Floyd was killed outside in the daylight,” Finch said. “My son was killed standing in front of the screen door, left laying there being denied medical treatment.”
Still, Finch said she has been heartened by the support she’s gotten since the Floyd situation.
“After his video went viral, I had a week’s worth of outpouring of support from people all over the world,” Finch said, adding that she had been contacted by people from the Netherlands, Australia and England.
“I stopped counting” the number of people reaching out, Finch said. “It was overwhelming, but (I) was so very appreciative of everybody who reached out. They’re still talking about it today, even. That just blew my mind.”
This story was originally published June 9, 2020 at 3:21 PM.
