Crimesider
Crimesider
April 9, 2012 9:00 AM

Oklahoma Shooting Rampage: Jake England and Alvin Watts arrested for Tulsa killings

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Crimesider Staff
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Daily Blotter

Jake England, 19, (left) and Alvin Watts, 32 (right)

/ AP Photo
(CBS/AP) TULSA, Okla. - Two men were arrested Sunday in connection with a shooting spree that left three people dead and terrorized Tulsa's black community, police said.

Acting on an anonymous tip and backed by a helicopter, police arrested Jake England and Alvin Watts, 32, about 2 a.m. Sunday 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.

Police Chief Chuck Jordan said the gunmen appeared to have chosen their victims at random. Law enforcement 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, Jordan said.

Police identified both suspects as white, while all five victims in the rampage early Friday were black. Authorities said one of the suspects may have been trying to avenge his father's shooting two years ago by a black man.

Police and the FBI said it is too soon to confirm whether the attacks in Tulsa's predominantly black north side were racially motivated. Police spokesman Jason Willingham said investigators are considering many possible motives but based on Facebook postings, revenge appeared to be a factor in the shootings.

In a Thursday update on the social media site that appeared to have been written by 19-year-old 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 ax to grind, and that was possibly part of the motive," 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."

A family friend told the Associated Press 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'd recently had a baby.

"If anybody is trying to say this is a racial situation, they've got things confused," said the friend, who described England as Cherokee Indian. "He didn't care what your color was. It wasn't a racist thing."

The Tulsa World reported that Jake England watched his father, Carl, get shot in the chest during a scuffle with a man who had tried to break into his daughter's apartment. England later died.



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