TULSA, Okla. — Acting on a tip and shadowed by a helicopter, police arrested two men early Sunday in a series of shootings that terrorized Tulsa’s black community and left three people dead and two others critically wounded.
Police spokesman Jason Willingham said the two men were arrested at a home just north of Tulsa about 2 a.m. Sunday and were expected to be charged with three counts of first-degree murder and two counts of shooting with intent to kill in the spate of shootings early Friday. He said police made the arrests after receiving an anonymous tip.
While police identified the men as white and all the victims are black, authorities have not described the shootings as racially motivated and declined to discuss that issue Sunday.
However, Willingham confirmed police are looking at a Facebook page in which it appears one of the men, 19-year-old Jake England, expresses anger over his father being shot and killed by a black man. Willingham said police were aware of the page but he could not say for certain it belonged to England.
A Thursday update on the Facebook page noted it has been two years since England’s father died and “it’s hard not to go off” between that anniversary and the death of his fianc�e earlier this year. A friend of the family, Susan Sevenstar, told the Associated Press England’s fianc�e had killed herself in January. The Facebook page had been taken down Sunday afternoon.
Community leaders have expressed concern about the motivation for the shootings on Tulsa’s predominantly black north side. The Rev. Warren Blakney Sr., president of the Tulsa NAACP, said Sunday that word of the arrests had provided a great sense of relief.
“The community once again can go about its business without fear of there being a shooter on the streets on today, on Easter morning,” he said.
Police said they linked the shootings because they happened about the same time within a few miles of each other, and all five victims were out walking when they were shot. Four of the victims were found in yards, and one in the street.
Police have said they don’t believe the victims knew one another. They identified those killed as Dannaer Fields, 49, Bobby Clark, 54, and William Allen, 31. They declined to name the survivors.
“There obviously still is a lot of investigation” ahead, Willingham said Sunday. “We don’t have a motive at this time. We are still asking questions and hopefully that will become clear in coming days.”
Milan Cherry, Fields’ niece, said her aunt didn’t have a car and she believed she was walking home when she was shot. She described Fields as uplifting and a source of strength for their family in hard times.
“When we went through four deaths last year in our family, she still tried to uplift everyone, even though it was her brother and sisters and a nephew who died,” Cherry said.
She said she didn’t have much detail on the arrests but they were “a good thing.”
“He was just going around, murdering people for no reason,” she said, talking about the shooter. “Now we have to bury our aunt because of this fool.”
Willingham identified the other man in custody as Alvin Watts, 32. He said England and Watts were taken early Sunday for questioning at a downtown Tulsa police station, where they would be booked and jailed. More information will be provided at an afternoon news conference, he said.
It was not clear early Sunday whether the men had attorneys.
Tulsa police had at least two dozen officers investigating the case, along with the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service and other agencies. A special operations team and a fugitive operations group helped make the arrests, Willingham said. He did know whether the men were armed when they were taken into custody.
Police went to England’s home after receiving a tip and then followed the men three or four blocks to another home where they were arrested, he said.
“We’ve been on them since early in the evening (of Saturday),” Willingham said. “We had been doing surveillance and using a helicopter.”
___
Associated Press writer Rochelle Hines in Oklahoma City and AP Broadcast reporter Ed Donahue in Washington contributed to this report.
EARLIER ON HUFFPOST:
You must log in to post a comment.