On Monday, a jury reached a verdict against the city of Benton and former Benton Police Chief Kirk Lane, awarding $32 million in damages to the family of a suicidal teenager killed by Benton police in 2016.
On October 17, 2016, 17-year-old Keagan Schweikle’s mother, Piper Partridge, called 911 to report that he had threatened suicide with a handgun. Kyle Ellison, the former BNPD officer who shot and killed Schweikle, told the teenager to drop his gun which prompted Schweikle to aim it at the officer. Ellison then shot and killed Schweikle.
Mark Geragos, the attorney for Schweikle’s family, argued the teenager may have simply been attempting to comply with Ellison’s orders to drop his gun when he was wrongfully shot but there was no body camera footage recorded from the incident. Municipal League attorneys, defending the City of Benton, argued that Ellison was forced to shoot Schweikle in self-defense and that he and other officers were acting in accordance with their training.
The jury ruled that the city failed to adequately train police officers and that it failed to investigate following the officer involved shooting. The jury awarded damages to the teen’s parents in the amount of $30 million from the City of Benton and $2 million from Chief Wayne.
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