Family disputes shooting

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Phil Stake
Staff writer

GALLUP — The family of 25-year-old Arnold Dan Jr., who was shot and killed by a Navajo Police officer Jan. 11, is refuting police claims of a justified kill.

The family has enlisted the power and influence of state Rep. Ray Begaye, D-Shiprock, a distant relative who lives about six miles down the road from where the shooting took place. Begaye held a news conference in Shiprock Friday to object to the official story released by the FBI the day after the shooting. The original story appeared in the Independent Jan. 13.

According to the FBI, an unnamed Navajo Police officer chased Dan to his home after Dan and two friends allegedly stole alcohol from Hogback Mustang on U.S. 64 around 11:15 p.m. Dan, Kevin Kellywood, 17, and a third, unidentified passenger left Hogback Mustang in a white Toyota pickup. They led the officer on a 45-minute pursuit that reached speeds exceeding 90 mph. Two additional Navajo Police officers joined in the chase, as well as one N.M. State Police officer. The FBI says the chase ended at Dan’s residence, about six miles north of Shiprock on Mesa Farm Road.

“Only one officer discharged a weapon during the confrontation ... the officer ... was on foot at the time of the shooting,” the official FBI release reads. “The officer fired into the vehicle as it was approaching him, killing the driver and wounding one of the two passengers.”

“The guy inside the vehicle tells a different story,” Begaye said in a phone interview. “They were already at the point of surrender when the officer began to shoot ... and to avoid the bullet, they moved the vehicle.”

Begaye added that Dan was shot in the head while behind the wheel, causing his lifeless body to slump forward with his food on the gas pedal. The pickup rolled forward into his family’s shed and stopped. Officers dragged the survivors from the pickup, beating Kellywood into submission with a baton. Kellywood had already been shot in the shoulder — a fact confirmed by the FBI. But Dan’s body was left inside the pickup overnight; officers taped off the scene and told the family that if they went near Dan’s body they would be arrested. Begaye said there were multiple witnesses, most of them members of Dan’s family who live in nearby trailers.

“One eyewitness said police came the next morning and picked up shells,” Begaye said.