‘The state killed my son.’ Olathe mom outraged over mentally ill son shot by police
Maria Varnas of Olathe was furious, crying Sunday in grief and anger.
Her 27-year-old mentally ill son — long suffering paranoid schizophrenia — was well-known to the Olathe police, she said. For years and on multiple occasions, including as many as 20 in a single year, they had been called to her suburban home on East Oakview Street when her son’s disease sent him out of control.
Police often knew how to handle him, Varnas said — stand back, talk him down, arrest him calmly and get him the help he needed, including hospitalization. And that’s what Brandon Lynch’s sister, Melissa Lynch, thought would happen on New Year’s Eve night when she, again, called the police to help her brother.
Now he is dead, shot in the front hallway of his home shortly after 11 p.m. by Olathe police.
“The state killed my son. The police killed my son,” Varnas said. “I want justice.”
The Star sought comment from the Olathe police department, which said any updates would be handled in a press release.
In an earlier press statement, police said they were called to the home about 11:10 p.m. because of a “physical disturbance. “ They said that when they arrived, the 27-year-old occupant of the house approached them with an “edged weapon.”
Police tried to use a Taser to stop him, but it was ineffective. He kept approaching, police said. An officer fired his sidearm. One neighbor said he heard three shots and, from his own porch, could see police performing CPR or other medical assistance in the lighted entryway. Johnson County Med-Act responded.
Lynch was pronounced dead inside his home. No officers were injured. The incident is listed by police as an aggravated assault on law enforcement. The Johnson County Multi-Jurisdictional Officer Involved Shooting Investigation Team is investigating. The officer or officers involved have been placed on paid administrative leave.
On Sunday, having yet to view her son’s body, Varnas and her daughter, Kelelah Link, insist they want answers. Not only do they believe that the police failed them, but Brandon’s death stands as an indictment of mental health care in Kansas and Johnson County.
The family said that only about 10 minutes passed between the time police arrived at the home and when Lynch was killed. Link, the sister, said that her mother had never given up on her son whose schizophrenic symptoms began arising when he was about 18 years old.
Johnson County court records shows Lynch being charged with several criminal counts going back to disorderly conduct in 2011, when he was still a juvenile, to counts of aggravated battery, assault and violation of a protective order in more recent years. In 2021, counts of criminal threat and battery were dismissed by the prosecutor.
“This has been an ongoing issue for years,” Link said of her brother’s illness and the involvement of police.
Link said her sister Melissa called the police because that is what her brother’s case worker at Johnson County Mental Health had recommended.
“She got scared, so she called the cops,” Link said. “That’s what we were told to do. If he acts out, if he is threatening, call the cops. But within nine minutes from the time the cops got there, they took his life.”
That is not how the Olathe police acted in the past, she said. Often, they worked with patience.
“They were outside and wouldn’t even come in,” Link said of past encounters. “They would reason with him over the phone and talk him through it and let him come out of the house.
“No Taser, nothing. He would go to jail, get some mental health help, go to a mental health hospital.”
Varnas was not home when the shooting occurred. She was out celebrating New Year’s Eve. She found out her son was dead when police called her. She went to her neighborhood, but was not allowed to enter the house.
Her daughter, Melissa, was at the home. Varnas said that her daughter told her that her son was holding a knife at his side when police came to the home.
“We’re very much confused on why it had to end this way,” Link said.
Neighbors on Sunday expressed nothing but compassion for the family. It was well known on the block that Brandon Lynch suffered mental illness and that police had come to the home numerous times over the years.
“This is going to be so hard on the family,” said one neighbor.
Said another, “He was just such a lost soul.”
This story was originally published January 1, 2023 at 3:25 PM.
