A Seward county deputy murdered a man in Lancaster County on Monday and we still don't know his name or what actually happened

On Tuesday October 24 local journalist Chris Dunker tweeted that law enforcement shot and killed someone the previous day on Interstate 80 west of Lincoln and almost 24 hours later still had not made a statement. This came less than a week after an LPD officer had shot someone and nobody bothered to mention it until that same officer was struck by a car on Highway 77 the next day. As of now there is still only one brief and confusing article about that situation. In addition to this lack of transparency by local law enforcement, it is a well-documented fact (shoutout Flatwater Free Press for their great coverage linked in the following sentences) that the Seward County Sheriff’s Department has unethically stolen millions of dollars from motorists without ever convicting them with a crime. After being called out on it, some of that money mysteriously disappeared, and Seward County refused to release bodycam footage that may have shown what went down. The guy in charge of these shakedowns, Blake Swicord, was fired from the force in Georgia after selling guns to a pardoned felon as well as allegedly sending sexually explicit texts and photos from his police-issued phone. He is unable to even be a cop in Nebraska.

Seward County Homeland Security task force coordinator Blake Swicord

A few hours after Dunker sounded the alarm, KETV released what was obviously a verbatim press release from the cops, all in passive voice, saying “a person is dead” after not getting out of their vehicle. Prior to that, both the Nebraska State Patrol and the Seward County Sheriffs Department said “not it!” and then when they finally released their statement, a weapon magically appeared.

According to this Lincoln Journal Star article (which we are now unable to access despite being logged in to our LJS account), they don't know who they killed but they arrested a passenger who was with the man they killed, who they won’t name, on warrants. They claim they have no idea who the man is that they murdered, yet they were pulling him over because they allegedly saw contraband in his vehicle (going 80 mph on the Interstate, no less) the week before. They claim that when the guy pulled over they saw a weapon, possibly in his hand, but they won’t verify whether there actually was a weapon or what kind of weapon they claimed to see. Now, the Legislature just made it legal for anyone who wants to drive around with a gun in their hand to do so, so why did they kill the guy? For speeding? For embarrassing them the week before by getting away from them when they were trying to pull him over allegedly because they saw “contraband” in his vehicle while going 80 mph on the Interstate? Most LEOs use field test reagents for their probable cause affidavits but this guy can just eyeball it at 80mph? No fucking way.

Let’s not forget this man was killed in Lancaster County by a Seward County deputy. Deputies are not supposed to chase across county lines, but even worse WHY did they engage before NSP even got there? Also how did NSP have ZERO cruisers involved until after the person was shot?

Something stinks in Seward County and we have questions:

Was there actually a weapon?

Why isn’t the passenger who was arrested on warrants listed as an inmate as part of the public record?

What is the race/ethnicity of the driver and passenger?

Was there a weapon and/or drugs or cash in the car?

If they have the license plate as Adams County and the passenger’s name, how do they not know the identity of the person they murdered after 4 days?

Who were the deputies involved in the shooting?

Something really bad happened on that road. Worse than just killing someone. There's no reason to be this quiet without a leaker. They absolutely know the name of the man that they killed. They are going to do this all the time now and eventually just say they didn’t want riots.