No charges to be filed in ESPD shooting

No charges will be filed in connection with a March 1 fatal shooting involving Eureka Springs police officers, Carroll County prosecuting attorney Tony Rogers announced in a news release Monday, April 22, calling the use of deadly force “justified under the circumstances.”

Christopher VanSchoick, 36, died in a confrontation with two Eureka Springs police officers who responded to a call reporting that VanSchoick had brandished a handgun during a disturbance at the Rowdy Beaver Den at 47 Spring St. in Eureka Springs, according to a news release issued after the incident by the Eureka Springs Police Department.

The ESPD officers arrived at the location and observed VanSchoick sitting in his vehicle on the street near the Rowdy Beaver Den, the release says. The officers confronted VanSchoick, and a struggle ensued, according to the release.

“VanSchoick produced a handgun, and one of the officers fired his weapon, striking Van-Schoick,” the release says.

Eureka Springs police chief Billy Floyd requested that the Arkansas State Police investigate the matter, and the ASP turned its findings over to Rogers.

“Based on the information and evidence furnished by the Arkansas State Police and based on applicable law, our office has concluded that the involved officer’s use of deadly force was justified under the circumstances, and that criminal charges against the officer are not warranted in this matter,” Rogers’ news release says.

The two officers involved in the incident have been on paid administrative leave. Floyd declined to identify them on Monday, saying he wanted to give them some time to speak with family before their names are released.

“I’d like to give the officers time to speak with their families and everyone who was waiting on pins and needles for them to be cleared,” he said. “… I’ve notified them and told them that they could talk to who they needed to, call who they needed to, and I’m going to give them probably a day or two to do that.”

Floyd said he believed from the beginning that the officers would be cleared.

“We were quite confident, because we had the body cam footage from the very beginning,” he said. “So we knew how it went down and we had relayed as much to our officers so they knew they had our support. I’m just really happy about the community support that we’ve had with everyone being patient, waiting for this to play out and be made official.”

Floyd said the officers involved are “in good spirits.”

“Obviously, they’re relieved if for nothing more than the fact that they can come back to work and be surrounded by their peers and not feel so segregated and quarantined,” he said.

Floyd said the officers’ body-cam footage was vital in the investigation that ultimately cleared them.

“One thousand percent,” he said. “I trust my guys, and I take their word. I would have supported them and in their word at their word. But having that body cam footage … The state police and the prosecutors, the ones that are in charge of investigating it, they don’t know my officers personally. They can’t vouch for them. So yeah, having that (body cam footage) up front in the very beginning to disallow any suspicions of excessive use of force or anything like that — it’s huge.”

The fatal shooting was the first involving a Eureka Springs police officer since June 21, 1973, when then-police chief Leroy Weems fatally wounded a man after a traffic stop at the corner of Spring and Pine streets.