South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Deputy’s use of force being reviewed in arrest
WESTON — The Broward Sheriff ’s Office is reviewing whether a deputy used appropriate force when he wrapped his arm around a seated man’s neck and slammed him to the ground during an arrest.
The video of the arrest has been viewed 1.7 million times on TikTok and over 4 million times on Twitter with thousands of people criticizing the deputy’s actions and calling for him to be held accountable.
Fo u r m e n w e r e approached by deputies at Bonaventure Town Center in Weston about 2:30 p.m. Dec. 22 after employees reported two people smoking marijuana in a bathroom, Veda Coleman-Wright, a Broward Sheriff ’s Office spokesperson, said in an email Friday.
The club’s management asked deputies to go into the gym and asked the group of men in their early 20s to leave, Coleman-Wright said.
“Deputies said while they were escorting them out of the club, the group became loud, argumentative and caused a disturbance,” Coleman-Wright said. One of the men called the executive director “racist” and cursed at him, she said.
Several videos posted on TikTok and Twitter last week show the incident outside the members-only club. In a minute-long video, Khalil Pace, 22, of Coconut Creek, and another man sat on a ledge as two male deputies and a female deputy stood nearby.
The video shows one of Pace’s friends stood up and walked toward Pace before Deputy Patrick M. Keegan pointed at him and said, “Stay over there.”
“When everybody else gets here, they all need to go,” Keegan said, pointing at the other men, aside from Pace.
Pace looked confused and upset at hearing Keegan say he wouldn’t be allowed to leave. A man out of the camera’s view told Pace to call someone from his cellphone.
“You don’t get to call anybody right now,” Keegan said.
“Yes, I do!” Pace replied. “Yes, I do!”
Keegan reached for Pace’s phone, and as Pace told one of the men to take his phone, Keegan moved behind Pace, placed his right arm around Pace’s neck and slammed him to the ground, the video shows.
Once Pace was on the ground, Keegan and another male deputy handcuffed him. Coleman-Wright said no one was injured.
Pace faces charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest without violence, according to his arrest paperwork. The arrest report said Pace “caused a disturbance” at the center and would not give his name to be issued a trespass warning.
“During the encounter, he disturbed multiple other patrons by screaming and using profanity around the mostly elderly members that were only feet away,” the arrest report said. “Though he was told to stop yelling and causing a disturbance, he refused.”
Coleman-Wright said Pace and the other men are permanently prohibited from going back to the club at 16690 Saddle Club Road.
“Per BSO policy, district command and the Training Division are already reviewing the arrest to determine if the force used was consistent with agency training and policy,” said Coleman-Wright.
Pace did not return a voicemail seeking comment Friday afternoon. In another video of the incident shared on social media, Pace said he and his friends went to use the restroom, not to smoke marijuana.
“We never smoked,” he said in the video. “Just because we smell like weed doesn’t mean we smoked in the restroom.”
Pace told WSVN-Ch.7 that he and his friends paid to use the club’s weight room and denied the allegations that anyone smoked marijuana. Pace said he did curse at the director and told him to shut up, Ch. 7 reported.
“You feel helpless, you feel humiliated, you feel, like, powerless,’ ” Pace told the station.
Weston city officials acknowledged the video in a tweet late Thursday and thanked people “for their patience while we looked into this matter.”
Keegan was previously investigated for allegations of battery and falsifying reports in a drug-related case in 2012, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported, though details about the investigation were not released at the time of the Sun Sentinel’s report. The suspect in the case, Andrew Landers of Lauderhill, received a plea deal in July 2012 and was sentenced to time served — about 10 days — in exchange for his no-contest plea.
“You are a very, very lucky man, Mr. Landers. Because of what the police officer did, you are walking out of this courtroom,” Broward County Circuit Judge Sandra Perlman told him in 2012, referring to Keegan.
In October 2006, Keegan was sent to Illinois to arrest a suspect but was arrested himself on domestic battery charges, accused of pushing and scratching his sister, who lived in Illinois. He was suspended with pay during an Internal Affairs investigation, the Sun Sentinel reported.
Keegan joined the Sheriff ’s Office in 2002, and by 2006, had been reprimanded twice for a harassment incident and for missing a court appearance and was counseled for not meeting Sheriff ’s Office standards in another incident. The Sun Sentinel did not have details about those cases in 2006.
Coleman-Wright said Friday that Keegan’s work status has not changed since Pace’s arrest, and the deputies’ body-worn-cameras were on during the incident.