Task Force Searches For North Tulsa ‘Random Shooter’
Update: April 8, 2012
Two Arrested In North Tulsa Shooting Spree
Tulsa Police: Crime Tips, Task Force Lead To Killers’ Capture
Jake England, 19, and his 32-year-old roommate Alvin Watts were found holed up in a trailer north of Tulsa.
TULSA, Oklahoma – Tulsa Police Chief Chuck Jordan said Sunday afternoon that a tremendous public response and “scores of tips” to the Crime Stoppers line were solely responsible for the capture of two Tulsa men suspected of randomly shooting five people, killing three, in North Tulsa on Good Friday.
Police called a news conference Saturday afternoon to announce the formation of “Operation Random Shooter,” a task force that was to dedicate 30 officers to finding the people responsible for the murders.
Within 24 hours of its formation, the task force arrested Jake England, 19, and Alvin Watts, 32. The men were booked into Tulsa County Jail Sunday morning on complaints of first-degree murder and shooting with intent to kill.
Dead in the Good Friday killings are Dannaer Fields, William Allen and Bobby Clark. Two other people were seriously wounded in the shooting spree, but have been released from the hospital.
After being shot, one of the survivors described the suspect as a white man, driving an “older” white truck.
The Crime Stoppers tipster told police that Jake England was in possession of a white truck and that he was planning to burn the vehicle. Osage County deputies found the vehicle burned at 6000 North Osage Drive.
The tag on the truck checked to Carl or Jacob England.
According to his Facebook page, which has since been removed, England’s father Carl was shot and killed two years ago. Pernell Jefferson was arrested in conjunction with Carl England’s death on April 7, 2010.
Jefferson is currently incarcerated at William S. Key Correctional Center in Fort Supply, but on charges of drug and firearm possession.
Jake England’s Facebook page includes a photo of his father on a collection jar, with the caption: “In loving memory: Carl England, father shot and killed trying to protect his children and grandchildren.”
Jake England’s fiance, Sheran Hart Wilde of Tulsa, died on January 10, 2012, according to Johnson Funeral Service. She was also the mother of his child, Jacob Carl England II.
The Facebook profile also adds support to the theory that the victims were targeted because of their race. It contains racial slurs, and at 3:40 p.m. Thursday, hours before the murders, the following post:
“Today is two years that my dad has been gone shot by a [expletive deleted]. it’s hard not to go off. between that and sheran I’m gone in the head.”
On Friday at 10:15 p.m. the following post appears:
“I do believer it just mite be the time to call it quits I I hate to say it like that but I’m done if something does happen tonite be ready for another funeral later.”
Police confirmed Sunday that social networking information is a routine part of an investigation, but wouldn’t speculate on Jake England’s public information and how it connects to the murders.
Warren Blakney, a minister at a city church and president of the NAACP’s Tulsa branch, said the shootings could well prove to be hate crimes given that they happened in a predominantly black neighborhood.
“For a white male to come that deep into that area and to start indiscriminately shooting, that lends itself for many to believe that it probably was a hate crime,” Blakney told CNN.
Tulsa City Councilor Jack Henderson, who serves the district where the killings took place, said he feels like there are legs to the hate-crime theory.
http://www.newson6.com/story/17360660/p
April 7, 2012
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