Law enforcement shot and killed a man Thursday afternoon who was charged with raping a woman earlier this month, the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office said.
The United States Marshals’ Eastern District Violent Crimes Task Force was searching for Shane Kelec and spotted him in the 1500 block of South Market Street in Mount Joy Township, just south of Elizabethtown. The shooting happened about 2:51 p.m., the district attorney said in a news release.
“Preliminary information gathered thus far indicates that officers fired at the suspect, the suspect was pronounced dead, and a firearm was found at the scene near the suspect,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement.
Kelec, 38, of Manor Township, was charged with rape, aggravated assault, sexual assault and theft in the Dec. 17 rape. Police said he attacked a person in their garage in Elizabethtown and stole their car.
Police said the assault happened around 8:05 a.m. and the victim suffered a broken nose and ribs, a fractured skull, a cut on their head that required nine stitches, and bleeding between their skull and brain. The victim’s neighbor found them when the neighbor noticed the garage was open and lights were on.
A Verizon store employee told a reporter they heard more than a dozen gunshots Thursday. Officers from the Pennsylvania State Police, Elizabethtown and Northern Regional departments, along with Lancaster County sheriff deputies were at the shooting scene after the shooting, but it was not clear if they were involved with the task force's search for Kelec or arrived afterward.
The mission of the task force, according to its website, is to locate and apprehend fugitives throughout Philadelphia and its surrounding counties, and the task force "prides itself in arresting the most violent offenders while ensuring the safety of the citizens and the community.”
Task force members are state and local police officers who receive special deputations for the task force. While on a task force, these officers can exercise U.S. Marshals authority, such as crossing jurisdictional lines. State and local law enforcement agencies refer cases for investigation by a fugitive task force, which adopts cases at the discretion of a task force supervisor.
District Attorney Heather Adams will investigate to determine whether the officers were justified in shooting Kelec or should be charged criminally.
This is the third shooting by law enforcement in Lancaster County this year. Adams determined the two previous shootings were justified.
On Nov. 29, three Lancaster city police officers shot and injured William O’Neill, 40, when they responded to a domestic disturbance call at 142 Hershey Ave. in the city’s southwest during which the caller said O’Neill was armed and had fired the rifle. O’Neill shot at police as they arrived and refused numerous commands to drop his gun, Adams said.
O’Neill is charged with numerous felonies, including attempted homicide, aggravated assault, aggravated assault of police and a firearm violation, which stems from a 2008 rape conviction in Montgomery County and a 2001 assault conviction in Philadelphia.
O'Neill was being held on $750,000 bail. A Jan. 9 preliminary hearing is scheduled.
On Aug. 6, two city officers fatally shot Darron Shaw, 17, of Lancaster, after he pointed a semiautomatic handgun at them and refused commands to drop the gun.
The shooting happened when police responded to a burglary report shortly after midnight in the first block of West New Street, between North Prince and North Queen streets, about a block away from Clipper Magazine Stadium.
