Two men have been arrested in the US over a shooting rampage that left three people dead and terrorised a black community this weekend. Police said one suspect 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 on 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 based on Facebook postings, 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, the posting said.
“It’s apparent from the posting on the Facebook page that he had an axe 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 yesterday afternoon.
A family friend, Susan Sevenstar, said that 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 had 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 England as Cherokee Indian. “He didn’t care what your colour was. It wasn’t a racist thing.”
The Tulsa World reported that 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. Mr 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 Jake England and Alvin Watts (32) at a home in Turley, just north of Tulsa.
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.
Authorities said they planned to charge them with murder and other offences.
Task force commander Major Walter Evans said that investigators recovered a weapon but that it was not clear who fired the shots. They also found a lorry that had been burned.
Police previously said they were looking for a man in a white lorry.
AP