Son of Harvey cop shot security guards, patron before being killed, sheriff's investigation finds

A Harvey police officer’s son allegedly shot two security guards and a patron outside a strip club in March before being fatally shot, a Cook County sheriff’s investigation found.

The sheriff’s office has not said who returned fire and shot Divonni Keel, 25, who was found dead with multiple gunshot wounds in the Boogie Nights Club parking lot in Harvey on March 13. Criminal charges are not expected to be filed in his death, sheriff’s spokesman Joseph Ryan said.

“After a lengthy and detailed investigation of the crime scene, we presented the results to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office and they decided there would be no charges in relation to the death of Mr. Keel,” said Ryan, whose agency took over the case from Harvey police at the department’s request because it involved an officer’s son.

The state’s attorney’s office confirmed Friday that it would not be pursuing criminal charges in Keel’s death because “we could not meet our burden of proof,” a spokeswoman said. Keel’s father, Darnell Keel, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the agency’s decision.

A Boogie Nights employee was charged with multiple felonies for allegedly discharging a weapon inside the club that night, but none of those shots struck Keel or anyone else, Ryan said. Antonio Salter, 46, was arrested May 17 and charged as an armed habitual criminal, a Class X felony, and with two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm and two counts of reckless discharge of a firearm, he said.

Harvey police reports, released to the Daily Southtown in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, detail a chaotic scene in which a crowd of people outside the club and a vehicle at the gas station across the street were caught in a hail of bullets.

Based on accounts of two club security guards and a patron who spoke to police, the shooting stemmed from a verbal argument that turned physical after four intoxicated individuals — two men and two women — attempted to enter the club without paying and were stopped by security.

The confrontation with security staff started in the club’s vestibule and later spilled outside to the parking lot, where one of the men — identified by multiple witnesses as Keel — allegedly walked to a vehicle and retrieved a firearm, according to police reports.

Keel then allegedly raised the weapon in the air and discharged it before turning his aim toward a crowd of about 10 people in front of the club and opening fire, reports said.

Shots struck one security guard in the arm and one male patron in the stomach, and sent the crowd darting back into the club for safety, according to reports. Another security guard also was grazed by a bullet in his left calf, reports said, but it’s unclear when that happened.

The sheriff’s investigation found that Keel fired all of the shots that wounded people, Ryan said.

The guard and patron who were struck were taken to area hospitals for treatment and the guard who was grazed refused treatment, according to reports.

Neither the guards nor any of the witnesses interviewed by police reported anyone returning fire, but when police arrived they found Keel lying dead on his back in the parking lot between two vehicles.

Police found a black .45-caliber handgun that had been reported stolen on the ground between his legs. The weapon’s 12-round clip was empty, according to a medical examiner’s case report.

Investigators found at least 25 shell casings scattered about the crime scene — 15 were 9mm casings and the other 10 were .45-caliber casings, according to the medical examiner’s case report.

Police reports note that several shell casings also were found on the floor inside the club, along with bullet holes in the vents, televisions and the dancer’s stage.

It’s not clear whether the indoor damage resulted from shooting that happened inside the club or shots fired outside that penetrated its facade.

A Chevrolet Impala whose two occupants were at the Amstar gas station across the street from the club also was damaged in the shooting, reports said. The driver told police that he and a passenger were inside the vehicle when gunfire erupted at the club. He said bullets struck his front passenger door and shattered his window as he attempted to pull out of the station, according to reports.

An autopsy found Keel had been shot three times — in his left calf, the right side of his chest and the back of his head. A toxicological analysis found he had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.19 — the legal limit to drive is .08 — and methamphetamine in his system. The level of methamphetamine in Keel’s blood did not approach the amount seen in drug abusers who exhibit violent and irrational behavior, according to the medical examiner’s findings.

Keel, who was charged last year with aggravated kidnapping, had been out on $50,000 bond at the time of his death, officials said.

He was arrested last September after allegedly holding his girlfriend, her 4-year-old daughter and four other minors at gunpoint inside his home and threatening to shoot them, according to prosecutors.

Keel also made headlines in 2011 when, as a 17-year-old, he was accused of stealing his father’s city-owned police vehicle, activating its lights and crashing into another vehicle outside Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey, according to published reports. He was later found guilty of possessing a stolen police vehicle and sentenced to probation, records show.

His father Darnell, a veteran Harvey police officer, was suspended after the incident while the department conducted an internal investigation. He was one of 10 Harvey police officers with controversial records that the Chicago Tribune profiled in 2014.

Keel, who resigned amid misconduct accusations under a prior mayoral administration, rejoined the force as a patrol commander in 2003 after Mayor Eric Kellogg took office, the Tribune reported. He has been placed on leave multiple times and sued the city multiple times during his tenure with the department. Most recently, Keel was placed on paid administrative leave just days after his son’s arrest last September on the kidnapping charges, according to a department memo. The city declined to explain the reason why he was placed on leave.

Boogie Nights,14701 S. Wood St., has been closed since the March shooting, Harvey Police Chief Eddie Winters said.

The club’s predecessor, Arnie’s Idle Hour, was at the center of one of the recent federal criminal probes in Harvey.

Arnie’s owner had for years been making biweekly payments of $3,000 and later $6,000 to relatives of former Harvey Mayor Eric Kellogg in order to protect their prostitution racket, according to a criminal complaint filed in March,

Rommell Kellogg, the former mayor’s brother, and Corey Johnson, the former mayor’s cousin, were charged in connection with the alleged strip club shakedown, which continued until at least 2018, according to the complaint.

Arnie’s was renamed Boogie Nights last year when the club changed hands, sources said.

zkoeske@tribpub.com

Twitter @ZakKoeske