The Benton and Little Rock police departments continued separate investigations Friday after officers at both agencies were involved in fatal shootings this month.
Benton police on Friday identified officer Kyle Ellison, a police dog handler and six-year veteran of the department, as the officer who shot and killed a teenage boy last week. Police said Ellison shot Keagan Schweikle, 17, the night of Oct. 17.
Schweikle was suicidal and armed with a .40-caliber pistol when his mother called police to her home in the 1200 block of River Oaks Drive, police said. Schweikle fled into a wooded area when officers arrived. Police said Schweikle pointed a gun at officers, and Ellison shot him.
Benton police said in a written statement that Chief Kirk Lane had decided to release Ellison's identity "based upon confirmation of evidence received from the Arkansas State Crime Lab." The statement did not provide additional details.
[OFFICER-INVOLVED SHOOTING: All updates from this week on Little Rock police shooting]
Schweikle's parents, Piper Partridge and Dominic Schweikle, spoke to reporters Friday for the first time since the killing. The two expressed grief over their son's death and asked for Benton police to be thorough and fair in its investigation.
Dominic Schweikle said the killing was "unnecessary." He said police appeared eager to confront his son, though he said patience and communication might have resolved the situation peacefully.
"He was no danger to anyone but himself ... We want to know why he was engaged," he said. "Why didn't the police department explore other avenues? Setting up a perimeter? Immediately calling a crisis intervention officer to come speak?"
Benton attorney Brent Standridge spoke on behalf of Schweikle's parents outside the Saline County Courthouse. Standridge said they will monitor the police investigation closely. He also asked for anyone who may have witnessed the shooting to come forward.
"We're just seeking justice and the truth," Partridge said.
Schweikle's death is the second fatal shooting involving Ellison. He and Benton police officer Mike Treasitti shot Clifford Jones, 29, in 2013 after a lengthy car chase during which Clifford fired a gun at pursuing officers, police reported. The chase began when officers tried to approach him during a narcotics investigation.
Ellison is the second Benton police officer to kill someone on the job this month. The department has declined to identify the other officer, who police said fatally shot Thomas Burns on Oct. 7. The officer shot Burns, 49, after Burns reportedly "threatened the officer with a handgun."
After Burns' death, one of his family members threatened the officer who killed him, according to police.
Lane has said he will not name the officer until he believes it's safe, or a judge orders him to do so.
Both officers were on paid administrative leave pending the outcomes of separate investigations.
Lane had not returned calls Friday seeking further information on the cases.
Little Rock police have not released certain details of an officer-involved shooting, and Chief Kenton Buckner said Friday that the department intends to continue withholding them.
The department has identified officer Dennis Hutchins as the officer who killed Roy Richards, 46, early Tuesday, but it has not named an officer who was with Hutchins when the shooting occurred.
Police have released 911 calls that preceded the shooting, but the agency has declined to release audio and video recordings from Hutchins' patrol car.
"If you give too much information to the public, someone can claim to be a witness because they have an abundance of information that's been publicly known, rather than be able to question and challenge them on things," Buckner said.
Police said Hutchins fatally shot Richards after responding to a disturbance between Richards and Richards' uncle. Police said Hutchins opened fire after Richards was seen chasing his uncle and "pointing a long gun at his back."
Police recovered the "long gun" as evidence and released a photo of the weapon. The photo shows an air rifle. The department has refused to identify the weapon's make or model.
Buckner said only select details of the case had been released to protect an investigation. He said his department has shown an appropriate level of transparency in the case.
"Writing the story, disclosing intimate details about a case, will sometimes put you in conflict with those who are responsible for prosecuting that case, investigating that case," he said. "And transparency is very subjective."
Police across the country have sought to increase transparency after civil unrest, racial tension and costly litigation over officer-involved shootings. An increasing number of agencies have turned to body cameras and other recording devices to exonerate, or implicate, officers of wrongdoing.
Police often have discretion over how and when such information is released.
In Charlotte, after police fatally shot 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott on Sept. 20, the department refused to release two videos of the encounter that officers had recorded. Civil-rights groups, community leaders and activists criticized the agency for not releasing the footage.
Charlotte police made the recordings public Sept. 24 after viewing the videos with Scott's family.
Rita Sklar, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas, said there should be independent investigations of every police shooting. That includes the shootings this month in central Arkansas, she said.
"There may be a thorough investigation and a proper outcome," she said. "I'm willing to give the departments the benefit of the doubt, but I think the people deserve transparency and to see for themselves."
Sklar also said threats against an officer should not exempt an officer from being identified in a police killing.
"I think it's important. We need to know," she said. "We hired these folks. We give them arms and we give them the license to kill, and we need to know who they are and what they're doing."
The Little Rock police shooting Tuesday was the second in the past year in which an officer fired at someone carrying an air rifle.
Officer Anthony Moore, a department veteran of 23 years, fired at a fleeing burglary suspect who was carrying an air rifle Oct. 29, 2015, police said. The shot missed. Moore fired at the 19-year-old man after the man "turned towards the officer with the rifle," police reported.
That encounter occurred in daylight.
It was dark when Hutchins responded to the disturbance Tuesday and fatally shot Richards, according to police.
That shooting was the fourth this year involving a Little Rock police officer.
Rookie officer Lora Montano, 24, was off duty when she shot an intruder at her home in Conway in March. Herschel Lamoyne Brigance, 25, survived his injuries and was charged with residential burglary in the encounter.
In January, officer Shawn Bakr, 39, exchanged gunfire with three armed robbers while he was working off-duty as a security guard at a Red Lobster restaurant. He shot one of the suspected robbers, Joshua Lamont Williams, 17, in the buttocks. Williams survived and was charged with criminal attempted capital murder, in addition to numerous other felonies.
Bakr, a four-year veteran of the department, was shot in the shoulder during the gunfight. He was treated at a hospital and released the same night.
Montano and Bakr were cleared of any wrongdoing in the shootings.
Last month, tactical officer Matthew Thomas, a Little Rock police employee of 19 years, shot an armed man during a drug raid at the man's home in rural Pulaski County, police said. The Pulaski County sheriff's office investigated the shooting. Sheriff's office spokesman Capt. Carl Minden said Friday that the agency had sent its findings to prosecutors for review.
Police in Arkansas have killed 17 people this year.
Information for this article was contributed by Hunter Field and Chelsea Boozer of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and by staff members of The Associated Press.
Metro on 10/29/2016