© 2024 KMUW
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Federal Civil Suit Moving Forward Against Wichita Officer In 'Swatting' Case

Tex Texin, flickr Creative Commons
/
flickr Creative Commons

A judge on Friday ruled that a federal civil suit can move forward against a Wichita police officer who fatally shot an innocent man in 2017 while responding to a hoax emergency call stemming from a dispute between two online gamers.

The death of 28-year-old Andrew Finch drew national attention to swatting, a form of retaliation in which someone reports a false emergency to get authorities to descend on an address. The address the gamers used was old, leading police to Finch, who was not involved in the dispute or video game.

U.S. District Judge John Broomes in a 57-page decision refused to grant Officer Justin Rapp's request for summary judgment in the federal lawsuit filed by Finch's family.

Rapp's attorneys argued that the officer's actions did not violate Finch's constitutional rights against unreasonable force, and that Rapp was entitled to qualified immunity.

A reasonable officer would have known that using deadly force when Finch displayed no weapon and made no overtly threatening movement was unlawful, Broomes wrote in the ruling.

The decision leaves it up to jurors to decide whether Rapp's actions were reasonable. No criminal charges have been filed against the officers.

Broomes also ruled in favor of the city of Wichita and the supervising officer on the scene, Benjamin Jonker, rejecting arguments from Finch's family that they too are liable.

Attorneys for the family contended that the city's officers routinely use excessive lethal force, and that the Wichita Police Department should have known its failure to stop the practice showed deliberate indifference that ultimately led to Finch's shooting.

In ruling for the city, the judge said Finch's family failed to cite evidence of a direct link between the city's actions and the shooting of Finch.

The judge found Jonker was entitled to qualified immunity because he did not order Rapp commit an unlawful act.

Police went to Finch's home after Tyler Barriss, a then-25-year-old Los Angeles man with an online reputation for swatting, called police from Los Angeles on Dec. 28, 2017, to falsely report a shooting and kidnapping at that Wichita address.

Finch was shot after opening his door and walking onto his porch to see what was going on outside.

The Associated Press is one of the largest and most trusted sources of independent newsgathering, supplying a steady stream of news to its members, international subscribers and commercial customers. AP is neither privately owned nor government-funded; instead, it's a not-for-profit news cooperative owned by its American newspaper and broadcast members.