Authorities ID man killed by Wichita police, say officer had no option but to shoot
Authorities said Friday that a wanted man killed by Wichita police earlier this week was shot after he stumbled off of an electric scooter, pulled a loaded gun from his pants and pointed it at an officer.
Police were trying to arrest 45-year-old Benjamin David Board in connection with a child pornography case on Wednesday when he refused to follow police commands to stop the scooter and pulled out the semi-automatic Smith and Wesson .380-caliber M&P. Authorities said Friday that Board’s gun had one round in the chamber and seven rounds in the magazine.
Board was wanted in a Sedgwick County case where he had been charged in December with eight counts of sexual exploitation of a child. The court dismissed the case Thursday following Board’s death, records show.
Wichita police said earlier this week that the department’s SWAT team and the United States Marshals Service went to an apartment where Board was at in the 9200 block of East Harry after receiving tips that he was there, could be armed with a pellet gun and a 9-mm handgun, and was planning a shootout with law enforcement.
The officers found Board around 9 a.m. on Wednesday but waited until he left the apartment around noon to try to arrest him, police said previously.
Sedgwick County sheriff’s Capt. Matthew Lynch said Friday that officers followed Board and another person into a nearby residential neighborhood after seeing them leave. Board was on an electric scooter at the time, he said. The Kansas Highway Patrol used an airplane to track him from overhead while an unmarked police SWAT vehicle went into the neighborhood to try to arrest him, Lynch said.
At 12:03 p.m., officers found Board and his companion in the neighborhood, around Mt. Vernon and Cypress. A minute later, the pair headed south on Cypress before splitting up, Lynch said. Board then continued traveling on the scooter along Cypress.
Within seconds, SWAT officers pulled their vehicle beside Board on Cherry Creek Drive, he said. In response, Board increased the scooter’s speed.
Three seconds later, one of the SWAT officers yelled from the unmarked vehicle: “Police! Police! Police! Stop! Stop! You’re under arrest!”
“Board continued on the scooter into a front yard and then abandoned the scooter and ran on foot a short distance, where he appeared to stumble and fall to the ground,” Lynch said. “Immediately after falling . . . Board reached to his waistband with his right hand and pulled a loaded .380-caliber handgun and pointed it at the SWAT officer.”
The SWAT officer fired eight shots at Board in response. Lynch said the officer was “hands on” with Board, trying to arrest him, when Board pulled the gun. He had “no option” but to shoot, Lynch said, adding that the officer “didn’t have time or distance on his side.”
“Almost immediately, other officers and additional team members arrived and rendered aid,” Lynch said.
“But despite life-saving efforts, Board was pronounced deceased at 12:25 p.m.,” he said.
Authorities on Friday played video footage recorded by the officer’s body-worn camera that shows him ordering Board to stop the scooter. Lynch said the video shows Board’s hand “on the gun and his finger is clearly in the trigger guard, on the trigger.”
The video shows Board lying on his back in grass when he pulls the gun from his pants. He did not fire it, Lynch said.
The Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office gave the update Friday as part of an agreement with the Wichita Police Department to investigate each other’s officer-involved shootings.
The person who was with Board when he left the apartment was interviewed and arrested on unrelated charges, Lynch said.
