An incident that took place in Oregon last week has sent shockwaves around the world. A man got rather gravely upset with a teenager as he was playing loud music. The confrontation escalated into a verbal spat followed by a fatal shooting. After squaring him in a parking lot of a hotel that the two were staying at, he shot the teen in the chest.
As per a report in CNN, Richard Keegan, 47, and Aidan Ellison, 19, were both lodging at the Stratford Inn in Ashland, Oregon. Keegan, on November 23, fired one shot into Ellison’s chest after the pair got into an argument over the latter playing music extremely loud, Tighe O’Meara, Ashland’s Police chief told CNN.
“The victim had apparently been playing some music loudly in the parking lot and this upset the suspect, which caused the suspect to go down and engage him in an argument,”said the Ashland Police Department in a news release.
According to police and local media reports, around 4 a.m. Keegan objected to the music volume Ellison was playing in the parking lot. Around 4:20 a.m, on Monday, Keegan pulled a gun from inside his coat and let out a bullet striking Ellison. The 19-year-old was pronounced dead at the spot. Keegan was at the scene when police reached. The killer was immediately arrested and taken to the Jackson County Jail.
Keegen has been charged with first-degree manslaughter, second-degree murder, unlawful possession of a firearm, and reckless endangering another person in connection with murder of an Oregon teen.
The 47-year-old was indicted on November 24 and pleaded not guilty to all four charges against him on November 27. Keegan is currently being held without bail and has to appear in court on February 21, 2021.
Keegan’s 3-year-old son was in the Stratford Inn room when the shooting took place. The boy was handed over to his grandparents after his father’s arrest.
The shooting of Ellison, a Black man, stemmed collective outrage and mourning from his community. Alongside calls against racism, the case is also being seen as an eerie echo of the Jordan Davis case.