Closing arguments set for Monday in officerrelated shooting trial
Both the defense and plaintiffs rested their cases Friday in the federal trial involving a civil lawsuit over the 2016 shooting death of 17-year-old Keagan Schweikle by a Benton Police Department officer.
The incident began on Oct. 17, 2016, after Keagan’s mother, Piper Partridge, received a call from Harmony Grove High School because Keagan had allegedly been ingesting codeine cough syrup and was “nodding off” at school.
Attorneys presented their opening arguments on Monday afternoon, and Mark Geragos, the attorney representing plaintiffs Partridge and Keagan’s father Dominic Schweikle, described the case as one that is emotionally challenging but asserted that the facts were straightforward.
“The school decided they were going to suspend or expel him and they called Piper. Piper, as you can imagine, dropped everything and came rushing to the school. Mind you, Piper, her first concern wasn’t that he was getting suspended, her first concern was not anything other than getting Keagan some help,” said Geragos in his opening remarks.
He recounted the events leading up to Keagan’s death, highlighting how Partridge, Keagan’s mother, had called the police for help with her distraught son.
During Tuesday’s proceedings, the 911 call was played in the courtroom. In the call, you can hear Partridge asking Keagan to drop the gun, as well as pleading for help. During the call, one of the dispatchers asked Partridge if she could disarm Keagan herself. Benton Police officers were deployed to Partridge’s house.
According to Geragos and Partridge, the police proceeded to search her house for Keagan, despite the fact Partridge had informed them he was not on the premises. At one point, Partridge saw an officer looking in her dryer and told the officer he wouldn’t find her son in there. The officer responded, “I don’t know how tall your son is,” according to Partridge.
She then went on to say that the police ransacked her house looking for her son. Before entering the house, Partridge
testified that the police told her to stand back and they entered the house with their guns up shouting “Benton PD.” The officer who eventually fired the shots that killed Keagan, former Benton Police Officer and current Arkansas State Trooper Kyle Ellison, showed up subsequently with his police K9.
Partridge said she tried to talk to Ellison when he arrived, but that he ignored her. Following the incident, Partridge said she was repeatedly harassed by Benton Police officers, being pulled over at least 20 times in the five years since then the incident.
One time when Partridge was riding in a car with her friend,
Ellison, as a state trooper, pulled her over. After that, Partridge said she no longer felt safe, quit her job, and moved to Colorado with her youngest son.
“This case is a tragedy in Kegan Schweikle’s death and a tragedy of Officer Ellison who had no other choice but to take the life of another just to protect himself,” said Gabrielle Gibson, one of the attorneys representing the defendants – Ellison, the City of Benton, and Kirk Lane – in her opening remarks. She added that Benton Police Department responded by sending multiple officers to the scene and pointed out that Partridge’s home was near Lyle Park and the Saline River.
“The officers will testify that the objective that day was to locate Keagan, and
contain him, and bring him home safely. Because they were searching for a missing juvenile who’s possibly suicidal with a gun, near homes, in wellknown recreational areas, time was of the essence,” said Gibson.
Ellison testified on Wednesday and Thursday, and his remarks matched the opening statements from his attorneys.
Ellison said that he felt threatened for his life when the gun was pointed at him and he fired three shots, two of which hit Schweikle.
However, in Ellison’s internal interview from Nov. 4, 2016, he says “he pulled the gun away from his temple and started to drop it and it pointed in our direction and that’s when I fired three shots.”
Geragos argued that by pulling the gun away
from his temple, Keagan was complying with Ellison’s orders to drop the gun.
Ellison described the situation as chaotic because his dog was barking and he was telling Keagan to “drop the gun.”
Geragos told Ellison that he created the chaos.
“You feared for your cover officers, which by the way, you didn’t know where they were, there was nobody else there, just you, the dog, and some troubled teenager, who you killed, is that a fair statement,” asked Geragos.
“I wouldn’t say all of that was accurate no, it was chaotic,” replied Ellison. “The dog jumping barking, me screaming demands,” said Ellison.
“The chaos was you,” exclaimed Geragos. “You were the chaos, you were
the agent of chaos.”
Ellison said that wasn’t true.
It was also revealed during the trial that the Benton Police Department investigated the shooting internally. The department did not reach out to a third party, like the Arkansas State Police, to conduct the investigation.
During Tuesday and Wednesday’s court proceedings, the two Benton Police officers who conducted the internal investigation into the death of Keagan, Jeff Besancon and Chris Benham, testified.
Benham said to his knowledge, the Benton Police Department has always conducted its own internal investigations into officer-involved shootings.
Since 2009, the Benton Police Department has
internally investigated seven officer-involved shootings without involving a third party, according to Benton Police spokesperson Krista Petty. Petty mentioned one officer-involved shooting that is currently being investigated by the Arkansas State Police.
“That was the most recent one that began as a pursuit in Saline County and ended near University. It involved multiple agencies and Arkansas State Police is investigating,” she said.
The court will reconvene at 8:30 a.m. on Monday to hear closing arguments which are expected to be presented around 9:15 a.m. and
9:30 a.m., according to US District Court Judge Brian Miller.
After closing arguments, the jury will begin its deliberations.