Carl's Jr. CEO Doubles Donation to GoFundMe After Employee Helps Save Shooting Victim
When 21-year-old Carl’s Jr. supervisor Michael Finney walked into work on April 3, 2018, he assumed it would be just like any other day.
But when he returned from a short bathroom break after lunch, everything had changed.
Finney is the supervisor of a Carl’s Jr. location directly across the street from the YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, California.
On that day, a woman had decided to open fire at the heaquarters, injuring three people before ultimately taking her own life.
But as Finney came back out into the restaurant, he saw that employees and customers were panicking. Before him was a woman in her 20s bleeding profusely from a gunshot wound to her calf.
“She was scared of course, but not in shock,” Finney noted. But as others in the restaurant seemed to be frozen, he knew he needed to act fast.
“Everyone was figuring out what to do,” he explained. “I was trying to stay calm and see what I could do. Everybody is shocked.”
First, he and two other men lifted her into a booth. They first attempted to use napkins and then the woman’s sweatshirt to stop the bleeding, but nothing seemed to be working.
Finney then ran into the back office and began to search for something he could use as a makeshift tourniquet to help slow the bleeding. He emerged with a bungee cord and quickly tied it around the woman’s leg.
Finney made sure to stay with her until paramedics arrived to take her to the hospital.
When later asked about his heroic actions that day, Finney simply explained that he was representing the company.
“All I was trying to do was stay professional, you know I have a job and I represent the store,” he said.
Finney went on to explain that he eventually hopes to go to college, possibly to study automotive repair, but is also working to make his way up into management position at the restaurant.
“I have an old Honda I bought for $1,000 and it always has a lot of problems but I try and figure out how to fix it,” he explained. “It may take a while. I’m nothing right now but I want to work my way up in life.”
Many others who heard Finney’s story knew that he deserved far more credit than he was giving himself. A Google computer engineer named Amar Amte decided to help Finney raise money for college by setting up a GoFundMe page for him.
“He showed great presence of mind,” Amte said. “I wanted to find something positive out of all of this.”
The page quickly reached its goal of $10,000 in less than a week. But when Carl’s Jr. CEO Jason Marker heard what his employee had done, he decided to pitch in and donate over $11,500 — more than double the entire goal amount. By the time the fundraiser ended, they’d raised $24,000 in four days for Finney.
“Mike Finney was a hero at the YouTube shooting so someone set up a GoFundMe for his tuition,” Carl’s Jr. tweeted last week. “The goal was $10k but college ain’t cheap so our CEO Jason Marker decided to make it twice as nice. THANK YOU MIKE!”
Although Finney has not yet commented on the status of the GoFundMe, we can only imagine how touched he is by the generosity of others who simply noticed his willingness to help a stranger in their time of need.
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