Last Updated on December 13, 2021, 7:09 PM | Published: December 13, 2021
OKLAHOMA CITY (Free Press) — Cityans are still killing each other more than any of the previous three years as Oklahoma City’s 90th homicide was added to the count over the weekend on the west side.
Sunday closed out a brutal string of days where three died violent deaths, two from being shot.
The homicides pushed Oklahoma City’s number beyond each of the three previous years:
- 76 in 2020.
- 88 in 2019.
- 62 in 2018.
In fact, only two of the previous ten years have shown higher end-of-year totals:
- 99 in 2012.
- 93 in 2017.
Free Press obtained these numbers from the Oklahoma City Police Department.
At the current rate, 2021 could become the bloodiest in a decade.
The 90th
A man was shot to death Sunday night after stepping outside his apartment where he and his girlfriend lived near NW 10th Street and MacArthur Avenue.
Msgt. Gary Knight with the Oklahoma City Police Department confirmed to Free Press that they believe the victim answered the door and then stepped outside. It is not known if the person who knocked is the one who did the shooting or why the victim was shot.
The name is being withheld until next of kin are notified.
The girlfriend told police that she was in another room and did not see who knocked and did not see the shooting. She told them that she only heard gunfire and then found the victim.
The victim was already dead when police arrived. As of this report, no arrests have been made.
The 89th
Friday night police responded to a call about a dead person in a parking lot in the 4300 block of S. May Avenue.
The body was determined to be that of a white male, Slater Howard Taylor (DOB 4/23/1994).
Police say that the injuries to the body they found there were “consistent with homicide.”
No other details are known at publication.
The 88th
Thursday afternoon, police responded to a reported shooting at 13725 Fairhill Avenue near N. Western Avenue and Memorial Road.
Once there, they found Richele Patricia Thomas, a white female (DOB: 8/28/1971) who had already died.
At the scene, OKCPD arrested Lavelle Lewis, a black male (DOB: 9/4/1971) for the woman’s death and booked into the Oklahoma County Detention Center on a complaint of murder in the first degree.
The OKCPD asks that anyone with information on these homicides or any others should call the Homicide Tip-Line at 405/297-1200.
Founder, publisher, and editor of Oklahoma City Free Press. Brett continues to contribute reports and photography to this site as he runs the business.
