VCU Police officer Nicholas Finch.
Nicholas Finch stands at the intersection of Fourth and East Broad streets in downtown Richmond, where he apprehended a suspect in a homicide investigation in March. (Photo by Tom Kojcsich, University Relations)

Campus policing organization recognizes VCU officer for apprehending suspect

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Virginia Commonwealth University Police officer Nicholas Finch recently received an international award for apprehending a shooting suspect in downtown Richmond in 2018.

The International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators presented Finch with its Valor Award during the annual conference in June. The award honors campus police officers for actions involving personal risk while acting on behalf of the university.

He is the first VCU Police officer to receive a Valor Award from the organization.

Valor Award recipients posing with their awards.
VCU Police Officer Nicholas Finch (center) holds a Valor Award from the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators. (Courtesy photo)

Finch was outside VCU Police headquarters at Third and Broad streets one afternoon in March 2018 when he heard gunshots about a block away on Fourth Street. He saw two men running from a local business and stopped one of them. He was able to search the suspect and recovered a handgun from the man’s pocket.

Finch directed other officers to administer first aid to a shooting victim and found witnesses; one led Finch to a trash can at Fourth and Grace streets, where a second suspect had discarded a firearm.

Despite the efforts by other officers and emergency medical personnel, the shooting victim did not survive. The Richmond Police Department handled the subsequent homicide investigation in which two suspects were charged.

Finch, a patrol officer, also received a VALOR award from the Retail Merchants Association of Richmond in November for his response in this case.