Tulsa Shooting Spree Linked to Facebook Postings?
At Least 3 Killed in Turley, Oklahoma Shooting Spree; Police Eye Possible Hate Crime
Two white men were arrested on Sunday in a shooting spree that may have been racially motivated, according to police. Investigators believe a posting on Facebook from one of the suspects may lead to a hate-crime charge.
Jake England, 19, and Alvin Watts, 32, were arrested on suspicion of carrying out a random shooting spree in an African-American community in Turley, Okla., early Friday morning in the city's north side.
A total of five people were shot and the shootings left three people dead.
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Although police have yet to say that the killings were part of a hate crime, law enforcement officials have said that they have reason to believe that the killings may have been racially motivated due to a recent Facebook posting by England.
England lost his father Carl England two years ago during a scuffle with a black man. England recently suffered another loss when his finance and mother to his infant child, Sheran Hart Wilde, committed suicide in January.
"Today is two years that my dad has been gone. Shot by a F****** N****," England wrote.
"It's hard not to go off between that and Sheran. I'm gone in the head," he added.
Police believe that the Facebook comments could offer some clues into if the shootings were racially motivated.
"It's apparent from the posting on the Facebook page that he has an axe to grind, and that was possibly part of the motive," police spokesman Jason Willingham told The Associated Press.
"If you read the Facebook post and see what he is accused of doing, you can see there's a link between the two of them," he added.
Jack Henderson of the Tulsa City Council has said that he believes that the shooting spree was racially motivated.
"I think that somebody that committed these crimes were (sic) very upset with black people," Henderson said at a press conference. "That person happened to be a white person. The person they killed and shot were black people. That fits the bill for me."
England and Watts were found on Sunday morning by police in a trailer north of Tulsa. They have not been charged with a crime but are expected to appear in court on Monday.
