An Arkansas police chief who fatally shot a 49-year-old earlier this month was justified, a prosecutor wrote in a letter Saturday.
Second Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington said that he had reviewed a state police investigation of Trumann Police Chief Chadwick Henson’s shooting of 49-year-old John Kelley and found that Henson’s actions were justified in defending his own life.
Authorities said while Henson was getting ready to go to work the morning of Aug. 3, Kelley showed up outside the chief’s apartment. Henson recognized Kelley because he had encountered him before, and the man had been “confrontational” in the past, Ellington's letter states. The chief told Kelley to leave his property and the man did so, according to the prosecutor.
Later that day, he saw Kelley sitting in an SUV in the middle of Cash Road, authorities said. The two drove to a camper trailer on Kisinger Lane, where they got out of their vehicles, according to Ellington.
Kelley “began making outlandish allegations,” the letter states, saying that Trumann police were trespassing on his property and that an officer had raped and impregnated a teen. He walked toward the camper, saying that he was going to get some bug spray. Henson stepped closer to the camper, then saw a black gun coming through the screen door, according to the letter. Kelley shot Henson in the chest, and the chief fired back, killing the man, the letter says. Henson, who was wearing body armor, was injured in the shooting and taken to a hospital, the Democrat-Gazette previously reported.
“Chief Henson was certainly justified in using deadly force in returning fire before Kelley could get off a second shot which, in all likelihood, would have been fatal,” Ellington wrote.
Ellington said the investigation is still active because there are outstanding reports, and his finding may be subject to change.