One dead from gunshot wounds after apartment firebombed

Last Updated on December 27, 2022, 9:25 AM | Published: December 21, 2022

OKLAHOMA CITY — A man police believe to have thrown “Molotov cocktails” into an apartment in far northwest Oklahoma City was found dead eight blocks away from gunshot wounds.

UPDATE, Dec. 27, 2022 — After next of kin were notified, the man who was found dead with gunshot wounds is being identified as 36-year-old Dione Prince.

The homicide — number 72 for OKC this year — occurred late Tuesday, just before midnight.

A Molotov cocktail is a home-made firebomb or incendiary device, typically made with gasoline.

Firefighters report that late Tuesday was their second time that day to be called to that particular apartment because of an “incendiary device” being thrown through a window.

Shooting

Just before midnight Tuesday the Oklahoma City Police Department (OKCPD) and the Oklahoma City Fire Department (OKCFD) responded to calls to 7201 N.W. 122nd Street at the Forest Creek Apartments.

Police were sent there on reports of “shots fired” and the firefighters were responding to a fire call.

A few minutes later, police were called to 115th and N. Rockwell after “a shooting victim was discovered in a car that had left the roadway,” according to an OKCPD press release.

That shooting victim was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. Police are withholding the name until next of kin have been notified.

From interviews at the apartment complex, police believe that the one who was found dead from gunshot wounds was the same individual who threw “several” Molotov cocktails into an apartment.

Police believe that he was shot by someone at the complex while he was throwing the last Molotov cocktail into the apartment and passed out blocks away trying to flee in his vehicle.

Fires

According to Captain Scott Douglass with the OKCFD Public Information Office, their call to that apartment was the second that same day, all from someone throwing firebombs.

OKCFD records show that Tuesday the same engine company, but on different shifts, responded to a fire at that apartment at 5:42 a.m. and then at 10:15 p.m. An incendiary device had been thrown through a window of the same apartment both times.

Both OKCPD and OKCFD report that their investigations are still active and not complete.

OKCPD is asking anyone with any information to contact the Homicide Tip Line at 405/297-1200.

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