TULSA, Okla. — Two men were arrested Sunday in a shooting rampage that left three people dead and terrorized Tulsa’s black community, and police said one of the suspects may have been trying to avenge his father’s shooting two years ago by a black man.
Police identified both suspects as white, while all five victims in the rampage early Friday were black.
Police and the FBI said it is too soon to say whether the attacks in Tulsa’s predominantly black north side were racially motivated. Police spokesman Jason Willingham said that investigators are considering many possible motives but added that, based on posts written on Facebook, revenge appeared to be a factor.
In a Thursday update on Facebook that appeared to have been written by 19-year-old Jake England, he angrily blamed his father’s death on a black man and used a racial slur. He said Thursday was the second anniversary of his father’s death.
“It’s hard not to go off,” given the anniversary and the death of his fiancee earlier this year, he wrote.
“It’s apparent from the posting on the Facebook page that he had an ax to grind, and that was possibly part of the motive,” Mr. Willingham said. “If you read the Facebook post and see what he’s accused of doing, you can see there’s link between the two of them.”
The Facebook page had been taken down by Sunday afternoon.
A family friend, Susan Sevenstar, told the Associated Press that Mr. England was “a good kid” and “a good, hard worker,” who “was not in his right mind” after losing his father and the January suicide of his fiancee, with whom he recently had a baby.
“If anybody is trying to say this is a racial situation, they’ve got things confused,” said Ms. Sevenstar, who described Mr. England as Cherokee Indian. “He didn’t care what your color was. It wasn’t a racist thing.”
The Tulsa World reported that Mr. England’s father, Carl, was shot in the chest during a scuffle with a man who had tried to break into his daughter’s apartment. Carl England later died.
The man charged in the shooting is serving a six-year sentence on a weapons charge, according to Department of Corrections records.
Acting on an anonymous tip and backed by a helicopter, police arrested Mr. England and Alvin Watts, 32, at a home just north of Tulsa around 2 a.m. Sunday. The two men were roommates, and officers went to their home, then followed them several blocks to another home, where they were arrested without incident, police said.
The Rev. Warren Blakney Sr., president of the Tulsa NAACP, said the arrests came as a big relief. Black community leaders had met Friday night amid fear over the shootings and concerns about possible vigilantism in retaliation.
“The community once again can go about its business without fear of there being a shooter on the streets today, on Easter morning,” Mr. Blakney said.
Police Chief Chuck Jordan said the gunmen appeared to have chosen their victims at random. Police identified those killed as Dannaer Fields, 49; Bobby Clark, 54; and William Allen, 31. Two other men were wounded, but were released from the hospital, Chief Jordan said.
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