ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. — Note: The video is from December 28, 2023.
Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams on Friday announced that the actions of two Elizabethtown Borough Police officers who shot and killed an armed suspect late last year were justified.
Shane Kelec, 38, was shot and killed outside a Mount Joy Township shopping center on December 28, 2023.
Kelec was wanted at the time for rape, aggravated assault and other charges related to a Dec. 17, 2023 attack on a victim in the Lancaster County borough, according to Adams. Kelec's attack left the victim with a fractured skull, a broken nose and broken ribs. He allegedly stole the victim's vehicle to flee the scene and was believed to have stolen a gun belonging to the victim as well, Adams said.
Adams concluded that each of the officers were justified under Pennsylvania law when they shot at Kelec, who failed to follow verbal commands of the officers and began to point a firearm toward the direction of one of the officers, putting that officer in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury.
Kelec was struck multiple times by shots from two different officers and was pronounced dead at the scene near the 1500 block of S. Market Street, Elizabethtown.
The incident began when investigators with the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force learned that Kelec had been seen at a Dollar General store two days earlier, Adams said. The Marshals reviewed video surveillance from the store and positively identified Kelec.
Members of the Task Force then proceeded to the next shopping center to the north to search for additional surveillance footage, in order to determine which direction Kelec was coming or going in an effort to locate him, Adams said.
This shopping area contained a CVS and a vacant Taco Bell.
Through the investigation, this order of events was determined leading up to the shooting, according to Adams:
- As officers searched for additional video footage in the area of the CVS, Officer 1 did not see any visible cameras on the front of the store. Officer 1 proceeded behind the strip mall and exited at a vacant Taco Bell restaurant.
- Officer 1 continued to drive around through the drive-thru area of the Taco Bell, while Officers 2 and 3 drove to the front of the building and each parked their cars.
- As Officer 1 drove through the drive-thru he spotted an individual laying on the ground behind a large trash receptacle storage area. The individual was lying against the wall of the trash receptacle area and approximately 10 yards away from the officer’s vehicle.
- Officers 2 and 3 approached the front of the building to ensure the door was locked and to look in the vacant restaurant.
- Officer 1 then stepped out of the car to observe the individual closer and recognized the individual was wearing the same clothes that he just viewed in the surveillance footage at the Dollar General. The individual was covered partially with a blanket and had a hood drawn around his face. The officer yelled “Shane, show me your hands.” The individual sat up and the officer directed him to remove his hood. The subject complied and the officer positively identified the man as Kelec.
- Officer 1 then instructed Kelec to interlock his fingers on the top of his head and Kelec complied.
- Officer 1 then yelled for the two other officers that had traveled to the front of the Taco Bell. Both officers immediately came to the area and covered the suspect from Officer 1’s left side. Officer 1 was positioned directly in front of Kelec, while Officers 2 and 3 were positioned a few yards away from Kelec’s feet to Officer 1’s left.
- As the other officers arrived Kelec removed his hands from his head and put them under the blanket.
- At that point officers began giving multiple, repeated commands for Kelec to show his hands.
- Kelec maintained eye contact with Officer 1 and began moving his hands around under the blanket. After briefly stopping the movement under the blanket, Kelec pulled down the blanket and displayed a gun.
- As Kelec started to lift the gun from under the blanket, Officer 1 was able to identify the object as a firearm, seeing both the butt of the gun and the barrel of the gun, and fired at Kelec as he believed that he was in danger of being shot.
- Officer 2 was also able to see Kelec’s movements and, fearful for Officer 1’s safety, Officer 2 fired at Kelec.
- Officer 3 was not able to view Kelec’s entire movements and did not fire.
- After shooting, Officer 1 retreated to the other side of his vehicle for cover.
- After both officers ceased fire, Officer 3 indicated that Kelec was still moving, so the officers held their positions and continued to provide commands to Kelec. Kelec’s hands were not visible after the shooting.
- Officer 2 contacted dispatch to report the incident.
- After additional officers arrived, a K-9 was requested to perform a bite-and-drag maneuver to force Kelec to show his hands. The K-9 was deployed and dragged Kelec a few feet away from his original location.
- At this point, both of Kelec’s hands became visible and the gun appeared as Kelec’s body was moved.
- Both police and EMS checked Kelec’s pulse but confirmed there was none.
- Officers recovered the firearm and found it was loaded with six rounds in the magazine and one round in the chamber. Additional ammunition was found in a backpack among Kelec’s belongings. There was no evidence that Kelec fired at officers.
- Officers also recovered a suicide note among Kelec’s belongings.
- The interactions between the officers and Kelec that led to the shooting were not captured by body-worn camera or video surveillance. The officers involved were not wearing body-worn camera devices at the time of the shooting. Only one of the participating officers had a camera assigned as part of their regular department duties. That camera was on the officer’s vest, which the officer was not wearing at the time the shooting took place.
- Footage from two body-worn cameras did capture the events after the shooting.
- Additionally, a drone that was being utilized for the search of Kelec captured footage after the shooting of the K-9 moving Kelec’s body which revealed the location of the gun produced by Kelec.
The Lancaster County Coroner’s Office performed an autopsy and determined Kelec's manner of death to be multiple gunshot wounds to the body, Adams said.
Adams said her office reviewed statements by the three officers as well as that of civilians who heard the shooting, photographs of the scene and footage recorded afterwards which revealed the presence of the gun on the ground next to Kelec’s body.
Adams concluded that the officers’ actions were justified as their belief that deadly force was necessary to defend themselves and/or the other officer from serious bodily injury or death was objectively reasonable as the subject removed his hands from his head hiding them under a blanket and eventually produced a firearm.