Officer Justin Rapp - WICHITA, Kan. () - A Wichita Police Department officer faces civil charges in connection with the December 2017 death of 28-year-old Andrew Finch at his south Wichita home. Justin Rapp was the officer who shot the unarmed man. A U.S. appeals court sided with a Kansas district court in denying Officer Rapp qualified immunity for Finch's death, saying a reasonable jury could have believed Finch was unarmed and unarmed when Rapp fired the fatal shot.
Finch's family filed a civil suit. Sedgwick County District Attorney Mark Bennett declined to prosecute Rapp for Finch's murder. The Wichita Police Department concluded that Rapp did not violate department policy.
Officer Justin Rapp
Prosecutors said Los Angeles resident Tyler Barris "called" police to a Wichita home near McCormick and Seneca in December 2017, believing he was responding to a possible shooting and hostage situation. In recounting the events that led to Finch's death, the US appeals court said Finch had committed no crime and had "no way of knowing why the police surrounded his home".
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"As Finch left the house, several officers shouted various commands," the court document states. "Ten seconds later, Officer Rapp saw Finch reach for a gun and shot him in the chest."
Two others charged in connection with the case have been identified as Casey Winner of Ohio and Shane Gaskill of Wichita. Police say Wiener and Gaskill were involved in a dispute over an online video game. The argument led to contact with Barris, who made a fake 911 call to a home near Seneca and McCormick, Gaskill's old address where Finch lived. Police said Finch was not involved in the game and did not know any of the three people involved in the altercation that led to the false 911 call.
Along with concluding that the civil case against Rapp could move forward, the appeals court also upheld the district court's summary judgment on the liability claims against the city of Wichita. This decision essentially saves the city, and overall the WPD is not responsible for Finch's death. The appeals court rejected the arguments, concluding that "[Finch's family's claim] failed to show any intentionally negligent policy or practice that caused Rapp to use excessive deadly force." Copyright © 2023, The San Diego Union-Tribune | CA Collection Notice | Do not sell or share my personal information
FILE - In this May 22, 2018 file photo, Wichita Police Officer Justin Rapp describes the night he shot and killed Andrew Finch on his front porch during a preliminary hearing in Wichita, Kan. Civil rights activists representing the family of Finch, who was killed by police. A rogue ambulance service is trying to hold the city of Wichita accountable for its troubled history of police shootings, according to a brief filed Friday, Dec. 4, 2020, in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. (Bo Rader/The Wichita Eagle via AP, File)
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Attorneys for the family of a Kansas man killed by police are seeking accountability from the city of Wichita for what they call a troubled history of police shootings.
In the six years leading up to the December 2017 death of 28-year-old Andrew Finch, Wichita police fired 21 shots at civilians, resulting in dozens of deaths, many of which were non-threatening, according to the summary. Friday in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. Summary There have been calls for police change in the US following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, where a white police officer knelt on the neck of a black man for several minutes.
"Given the importance of this historic moment for police reform in America, the impact of the court-created doctrine of qualified immunity, and the immeasurable loss suffered by Andy Finch's two young children, it was important for us to provide this brief." The Tenth Circuit sought justice for the Finch family and families across America for unjustified police brutality,” family attorney Andrew M. Stroth said in an email.
Wichita City Attorney Jennifer Magana declined to comment, citing the pending lawsuit. In lawsuits, the city has defended its officers' actions in the shooting and an internal investigation into them.
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The family's lawsuit cites FBI crime statistics that show Wichita has one shooting death for every 120 police officers — 11 times the national rate and 12 times the Chicago rate.
Finch, who was the victim of an argument between two men playing video games online, was not armed. His death drew national attention to "stabbing," in which someone reports a fake emergency to the police to get to an address. The address used in this case was old and led police to Finch, who was not involved in the video game or the dispute between the players. Finch was white, as was the officer who shot him, Justin Rapp.
U.S. District Judge John W. Broomes ruled in June that the Finch family's case against Rapp could move forward, writing, "A reasonable officer would have known that the use of deadly force was unlawful when Finch did not display a weapon and did not an overtly threatening gesture.” Broomes rejected the Finch family's arguments that the city and the supervisor should also be held liable.
Rapp's lawyers argued that he was entitled to qualified immunity because he reasonably believed that Finch posed a threat to the police.
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The family's attorney cited the history of the shootings to rebuild the Wichita Police Department's case against them.
Civil rights activists write that they have reconstructed 18 of the 21 shootings from individual and court documents, and even those limited documents paint a "damning portrait" of Wichita officers' use of force and the city's investigative practices.
With few exceptions, administrative investigations have not questioned the officer who fired, let alone anyone else, the complaint said. There was no sense of discipline in any of these shootings, the lawyers wrote. No criminal charges have been filed against any of the employees.
"The result is a department without safeguards and a culture of impunity that will not stop shootings like the one that killed Andrew Finch," the lawyers said.
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On December 28, 2017, Los Angeles-based gamer Tyler R. Police went to Finch's home after Barris called police to report a shooting and kidnapping at an address in Wichita. Barris mistakenly believed the address belonged to a player involved in a dispute over a $1.50 bet in the online game Call of Duty: WWII. Finch was shot after opening his door to see what was going on outside.
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