Kegan D. Lancaster, 32, Shirley
HANCOCK COUNTY — A Shirley man has been arrested and charged with multiple battery crimes after attacking a group of people, including a 5-year-old and a 12-year-old during an incident in December.
Kegan D. Lancaster, 32, 8000 block of West CR 300N, has been charged with a Level 5 felony count of criminal confinement with bodily injury and three different Level 6 felony domestic battery charges as well as two different Level 6 felony counts of strangulation.
Lancaster had his initial appearance via jail video in Hancock County Superior Court 1 on Monday morning after being arrested Sunday. He entered a “not guilty” plea. Judge D.J. Davis set a $3,500 cash bond and approved a request for “no contact” orders. Lancaster is due back in court mid-March for a pre-trial hearing.
According to a probable cause affidavit, officials from the Greenfield Police Department and Zoey’s Place first conducted a forensic interview with a 5-year-old girl, who officials say was one of Lancaster’s primary victims.
The report states, the child told officials Lancaster was arguing with someone and then grabbed her so hard she couldn’t breathe. She then said Lancaster got on top of her so hard it hurt her throat and back.
According to the report, the child told officials she got away and ran to a car where a 12-year-old and a cousin were. The 5-year-old also noted Lancaster hit the 12-year-old, too. The child told officials the incident took place at a woman’s home. The child told officials she was at the house with the woman, the 12-year-old and a cousin as well as another man, the woman’s boyfriend, and Lancaster.
The 5-year-old told officials the man who attacked her also hit the woman in the eye three times, the report states.
A forensic interview of the 12-year-old girl who was present stated the woman lives at the house with her boyfriend and the woman and Lancaster went to pick up the 5-year-old child. That’s when the 12-year-old said Lancaster started acting weird.
Officials noted in the report, the woman and her boyfriend went out for dinner, leaving Lancaster there with the two juvenile girls and a cousin. The 12-year-old told officials she thought Lancaster had taken some pills because he kept nodding out while cooking dinner and the kids had to finish making the meal.
It was after dinner the report stated when Lancaster started screaming Black Panthers were after them. The 12-year-old told officials in the report, Lancaster had been watching a documentary about Black Panthers and for some reason believed they were going to get them.
When the other two adults returned to the house, officials noted in the probable cause report, Lancaster is reported to have attacked the other male. The 12-year old told officials Lancaster had also pushed her down the stairs, but she ran outside to the car where they, the woman, and the cousin were in and they began to drive away.
As they drove away, the 5-year-old began chasing the car down the road to try and get in, the 12-year-old stated. However, Lancaster would not let the 5-year-old go. The report noted the 12-year-old said Lancaster then began choking the 5-year-old girl during the incident, but the other man and woman pulled the child away and the police were called.
The 12-year-old told officials in the report that Lancaster had filled a pill bottle earlier in the day at a drug store, and when she saw the bottle later that day there was only one pill left. She stated in the report that Lancaster takes Adderall.
