So Sad: 19-Year-Old Aidan Ellison Shot and Killed After Playing Music in Oregon Hotel Parking Lot

A Black teenager was shot and killed in an Oregon hotel parking lot last week after getting into an argument with another man over loud music.

via Page Six:

Aidan Ellison, 19, died early last Monday morning at the Stratford Inn in Ashland, Ore., after Robert Paul Keegan, 47, shot him while he was sitting in his vehicle. Ashland Police Chief Tighe O’Meara told CNN that Keegan pulled a gun from his coat and shot Ellison once in the chest around 4:20 a.m. after the two argued about the volume of music Ellison was playing in his car in the parking lot. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Keegan was staying at the hotel with his parents and 3-year-old son at the time because they had been displaced by the Almeda Drive wildfire which swept through Oregon in September, according to O’Meara.

“The only thing that caused this murder was the suspect’s actions,” O’Meara said in a Facebook post. “It happened because the suspect chose to bring a gun with him and chose to use it, 100% on him, not the poor young man that was murdered.”

Activists arranged a vigil for Ellison which was held at the hotel Thanksgiving Day.

“The murder of Aidan Ellison is another example of Southern Oregon’s racist history with and current practice of white supremacy,” Southern Oregon Black Leaders, Activists, and Community Coalition said in a Facebook post. “To be clear Aidan was murdered because he was a young Black person who made a white man uncomfortable and refused to submit to that man’s personally-perceived authority — not because he was listening to music too loudly.”

Keegan was arrested and charged with second degree murder, first degree manslaughter, unlawful possession of a firearm, and recklessly endangering another person.

He pleaded not guilty in court last week but is being held at the Jackson County Jail without bail until his next court date in late February 2021.

Robert Paul Keegan needs to be prosecuted to the FULLEST extent of the law. RIP Aidan.