Posted on 02/21/2015 1:57:02 PM PST by Lacey
Dale Long died in the same red car he used to run into an apartment security guard on a cold night in early January.
Long, who had been arrested in Tulsa nearly a dozen times since the early 1990s, was spotted by security officers who recognized him not only as the source of the disturbance to which they were responding but also as someone who had been banned from the property.
Tulsa police homicide Sgt. Dave Walker said Long was shot in the torso when the security officer he ran into pushed away from the vehicle and fired a single bullet. The 40-year-old continued to drive away, eventually crashing his car into a tree south of the shooting scene.
Long was pronounced dead of a gunshot wound to chest while still in the car.
That interaction at the Western Pine Apartments in 2400 block of South Maybelle Avenue, just west of the Arkansas River, was the beginning of an unusual homicide trend during the city’s first six weeks.
Of the 11 homicide victims so far this year, five have been killed by civilians or security guards in shootings Tulsa police have deemed self-defense. For comparison’s sake, only eight such homicides occurred in all of 2014, and six of those involved Tulsa police officers. Tulsa police have not been involved in a shooting yet this year.
“It’s been an odd year,” Walker said. “I’m sure it will even out over the next 12 months, but, yeah, … it’s been odd.” ‘No matter how slight’
While many are aware of Oklahoma’s “Stand Your Ground” law, not everyone knows its details, Tulsa County First Assistant District Attorney John David Luton said.
Enacted in 2006, the law extends broad protection to Oklahomans who think someone entering their “dwelling” might use physical force against them. The law even specifies that the victim need not be in fear of his or her life — use of deadly force is protected as long as the victim has “reasonable belief” the intruder might use “any” physical force, “no matter how slight.”
That’s an important distinction, Luton said, one that helps simplify many self-defense shootings, such as one in Muskogee last year where a man attempting to stop the burglary of a nearby home fatally shot one of the burglars. The man told police he pointed a gun at the burglars but fired only when one approached him “in an aggressive manner.”
The “no matter how slight” distinction is not the only one made in the law, which provides protection not only to those in their own homes but to those in a “dwelling, residence or occupied vehicle.” It defines a dwelling as “a building or conveyance of any kind,” including even a porch or a tent.
Even given these broad definitions, only one of the five self-defense shootings so far this year has involved the Stand Your Ground law, and it’s the only one of the five shootings in which the shooter has been cleared by the District Attorney’s Office.
On Jan. 13, Bradley Keeling, a clerk at Ryan’s Convenience Store in east Tulsa, fatally shot two intruders during a robbery attempt. Keeling was not arrested, and nine days later, Luton issued a press release stating that the District Attorney’s Office had cleared Keeling of any wrongdoing.
Tulsa police have not released surveillance footage of the shooting, withholding it for evidence, since two people suspected of being accomplices in the botched robbery have been charged and are awaiting a preliminary hearing.
But Luton, who has viewed the video, said Keeling saw three men (Kevin Dobbs, Brian Powell and Lakeit Thompson) approach the entrance wearing masks and armed with guns.
“Three guys are coming in. (Keeling) can see the glass doors. He sees them hooded up. The first guy comes in. (Keeling) sees the gun,” Luton said.
One of the robbers fired a gun at Keeling, who returned fire, striking two of the men, Luton said.
Dobbs and Powell died. The third man, suspected of being Thompson, fled with another man, but both were arrested later that evening when they returned to the convenience store and were spotted by police. To clear or not to clear
The other self-defense shootings this year have all differed, sometimes in slight ways. Long was shot by a security guard who said the ex-convict sped toward him, striking him with his vehicle. On Feb. 4, another security guard shot and paralyzed a man in a similar scenario.
That security guard, Walker said, came upon a red vehicle in which he believed two people were having sex. The guard said that when he asked for identification, the car backed into him, throwing him onto the trunk.
He told police he responded by firing at the back glass as the car sped away. It crashed into a tree after the gunshot struck the driver in the neck, and police arrived as the guard was giving the wounded man CPR.
Neither shooter has been legally cleared by the District Attorney’s Office. Luton said he is waiting for a medical examiner’s report on Long’s death, and prosecutors have not yet received the case file from police on the other shooting.
The differences between these two shootings by security guards are slight. In the Long shooting, the guard said he fired a shot as he was being struck by the vehicle. In the Feb. 4 shooting, the guard fired a shot into the back windshield as the car was driving away.
The guard who fired at Long’s vehicle shot at a vehicle that carried only a person the guard claimed had just tried to run over him, something that legally constitutes deadly force. In the Feb. 4 shooting, the guard fired at a vehicle that carried not only a driver who had struck him with the vehicle but also a 16-year-old girl.
Walker said the investigation into that shooting, as well as a fatal self-defense shooting of a man by his wife on Jan. 31, was slowed by a quadruple shooting Feb. 6 at a Tulsa barbershop.
“When we are deciding if we’re going to arrest someone (right after a shooting,) there are a lot of questions we have to ask ourselves,” Walker said. “What do we know at that point? In (the Feb. 4 shooting,) there were no witnesses, so what we had was the security officer, and what he told us, it’s being backed up by the evidence.
“Does he still have a legal right to shoot into that vehicle? I’m not sure. But when I arrest someone, it can take their whole livelihood and freedom away, and I want to make sure it’s right.” Medical examiner’s office reports bring valuable insight
A little more than two weeks prior to that shooting,
Andrew Bryiant, an off-duty Department of Veterans Affairs police officer from Oklahoma City who was on his way to a concert at Tulsa’s BOK Center, fatally shot a man he said he saw having a physical altercation with a woman.
Bryiant, 33, told police he stopped his vehicle when he saw Rodney Walker fighting a woman near 11th Street and Denver Avenue. Bryiant said he identified himself as a police officer, then shot Walker when he believed that Walker was reaching for a gun in his waistband.
Bryiant was not arrested, and District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler is awaiting the medical examiner’s report — which may be months away — before deciding whether to press charges.
“There’s a lot of things we glean from those reports, like where the person was shot,” Luton said. “Not only where, but if they were shot more than one time, the path the bullet took. … It’s really crucial.”
Bullets can take wildly varying paths once entering a body — in one shooting last summer, a bullet entered 19-year-old Jeremey Lake’s neck, then took a sudden 90-degree turn, shredding a lung and entering his heart — but still provide valuable insight.
“It tells us what? Maybe where was the shooter, where was the (victim) turning, were they running.” Luton said. “(Were they) going away? Coming toward? Where were they standing in comparison to the shooter?”
It can also tell you, in some cases, the proximity of the shooter, which Luton said is “extremely important” when it comes to deciding self-defense. Police will take a statement from the shooter, but that statement needs to correspond with what the medical examiner’s report reports, he said.
“Does (the report) match up and corroborate with all the other evidence we know, including statements by all the parties there?” Luton asked. “It can be very important in making those determinations.”
Toxicology tests that determine things such as levels of alcohol, drugs or prescription medication in the deceased’s system can take the state Medical Examiner’s Office several months to complete, but they are crucial at times.
“It may not mean anything in one case, but it may mean everything in another,” Luton said. “If a guy has a 0.28 blood alcohol level, that may be important.”
Not surprising. This past year Obama, Holder, and the criminal press have all been extremely busy encouraging people to attack police and commit crimes.
The streets of America are getting cleaned up.
To my mind, difficult to justify such a shooting as self-defense or Stand Your Ground.
Instead of advising young Negroes to pull their pants up and fly right, The Gay Kenyan and his AG have increased the weight of the "Chip on the Shoulder" of their young, male, urban base. Young low-end Negroes are acting up all over the country and no one in authority has the balls to tell them that they are in grave danger of being martyred in a very silly cause.
Tulsa Whirled: either accept the rulings, or shut up. You have no power over the armed citizen, you impotent nancies.
That falls under the general heading of Taking Out the Trash.
Think of how many citizens would have been killed by criminals if they had not been armed. More of these criminals need to be shot. It would lower the cost to prosecute them.
When men are addled by anti-gun ideology, there is no perspective in reality.
He’s a security guard, they have slightly different rules in some states. This may be covered under the ‘Fleeing Felon’ rule.
That unnamed guard may have feared the unnamed pedophile would have circled around and came back at him to make sure he was dead. Lucky the 16 year old girl, with him in the car, was not killed too.
In 2010, the total cost of Oklahoma’s prisons to incarcerate an average daily population of 24,549 was $453.4 million.
$453,400,000/24,549 = $18,469 per inmate, for 1 year.
For armed robbery, sentence can vary from 5 years to life.
So assuming these 5 decedents were felon criminals who would have been sent to prison for just a single year, the state has been saved some $92,000 plus. If the other six were to go to prison as well, again for just 1 year, the state may have been saved over $200,000.
Had they all been put in prison for 5 years, $1 million. $10 years, $2 million.
And this ignores things like the costs to future victims and imprisonment. The one convict mentioned had been arrested 9 times. This can add up to real money.
Sorry, shooting into a car you know contains people other than the person you’re trying to shoot is only rarely justified. Never, if the car is driving away.
I’m not in favor of adult males going after 16 year old girls, and I have no problem with it being illegal, but those who do are hardly pedophiles, which refers to attraction to pre-pubescent children.
Sounds like law abiding citizens have the situation well in hand.
Tell me something bad about Tulsa
How those old oil wells smell in the wind
Tell me something bad about Tulsa
So I won’t have to go back believing I belong there again
Eyes as blue as Tulsa skies
I kept getting lost in when I met her
Hair like Oklahoma sand
I could run my hands through forever
But all good things must end
All rivers have to bend, I keep runnin’ out
But she keeps pullin’ me back in
Tell me something bad about Tulsa
How those old oil wells smell in the wind
Tell me something bad about Tulsa
So I won’t have to go back believing I belong there again
Tell me something bad about Tulsa
So I won’t have to go back believing I belong there again
I am actually wrong to consider the shooting victim a pedophile, or even a statutory rapist in Oklahoma. The girl has to be under 16 years of age and there are other legal circumstances that the lawyers can fiddle with.
I admit, my reaction to someone trying to ram a security guard with his car, caused my knee jerk reaction. I wish we knew more about shooter. He might have been a drug addled teenager for all we know.
The guard must have got off the shot at close range so he could accurately target the driver.
Or fired at long range and got lucky.
I don’t think either of us knows what happened. But I think shooting at someone should be done only for a darn good reason. And someone trying to get away is rarely that reason.
Even if the law allows it.
I would have taken the time to get a license number rather than going for the gun. Let the yahoo go for a second spin at me. Then it is mono-a-mono.
I wonder how the father of the 16 year old girl feels, it might not be pedophilia but I can’t help feel the girl will probably not be stepping out like that for a long while.
There’s been a heck of a lot of gunplay in Tulsa ... both bad guys and good guys. Tulsa is getting to be the Wild Wild West.
AND ... the fact of the matter is that the bad guys CAN EXPECT that someone is nearby with a concealed weapon (legally so) ... and in spite of that ... these bad guys are STILL doing shootouts. It doesn’t seem to have deterred them, in the least. It is like it was in the Wild West ... in that everyone is going to “have at it” no matter what.
I’ve noticed that it seems to be getting BAD in the last few years!
This is not a political statement of any kind, but stating that things are GETTING CRAZY around here!
— — —
Last year, there was a Tulsa policeman, well-respected, no problems, a pillar of the community ... and ... when he was off duty he was looking for an adopted daughter who had taken with a boyfriend (after the officer ... i.e., mom and dad, had kicked the daughter out to teach her a lesson). He found the daughter in a public venue, an outdoor musical concert area, and the officer shot up the boyfriend (killed him) and shot at his daughter!
That’s a real puzzler, but is indicative of the increasingly prevailing attitude, it seems, that if one has a problem, one solves it by shooting someone. That is getting to be the prevailing attitude around here!
We’ve REALLY got to stop that attitude that you kill someome to “solve your problem”. We’ve got to instill in people that you don’t pull your gun for “problem resolution” but ONLY in the event of an immediate and direct threat to your life ... and that the SANCTITY OF LIFE is extremely important, no matter WHAT DISPUTE one may have.
Wow! I used to live just East of the river there, and worked just West of the river on Yukon Street.
Low rent apartments, but not a really bad area. That was 43 years ago. Things may have changed since then.
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