A man who is accused of killing his 5-year-old son while engaged in a standoff with Tulsa police had violated a protective order multiple times after his wife filed for divorce last year, police said Friday.
When Sand Springs police served Bryon Creech with a protective order last July, after Creech's wife said the 6-foot-6-inch tall, 330-pound former Marine had threatened her with a gun, they seized his weapons.
"The protective order we served — there was an order from the judge to confiscate any weapons present," Deputy Police Chief Mike Carter said Friday. "We confiscated several guns, a Taser, some expandable batons and knives. We still have custody of those."
On Friday, Creech was arrested in Tulsa following a 16-hour standoff in which he is accused of firing multiple shots at police and, at some point, shooting his 5-year-old son, Braydon.
People are also reading…
Creech, 36, was booked into the Tulsa Jail at 1:42 p.m. on complaints of first-degree murder,
shooting with intent to kill, kidnapping, second-degree burglary and a protective order violation. Tulsa Police Officer Leland Ashley said investigators think Creech shot his son during the early stages of the standoff.
Creech's wife, Laurel Creech, had called the police twice Thursday to report that 1 1 her husband had violated a protective order at her new home at the Riv-erchase Apartments, in the 7800 block of South Victor Avenue.
She left the apartment and called the police the first time at 4:27 p.m., Sgt. Shane Tuell said.
Officers showed up about 4:43 p.m., but Laurel Creech was not at the apartment, Ashley said. The call, which was classified as a high-priority call, was then cleared at 4:53 p.m., according to police dispatch records.
Officers returned to the apartment after Laurel Creech called again at 5:17 p.m. The second call was described as a low-priority because it was called in as a report, police said. It was dispatched to a patrol officer at 6:01 p.m., and police arrived at the scene at 6:08 p.m.
As they attempted to talk to him, Bryon Creech started shooting, police said. They retreated and evacuated surrounding apartments as the standoff began.
As the hours wore on into the night, police seemed hopeful that the situation would come to a peaceful end.
Tuell said officers spoke with Bryon Creech at times during the standoff and that while Creech never let officers talk to Braydon, he did assure them that the boy was OK.
"We had to take his word for it," Tuell said. "If we rushed into that thing, and it was something he wasn't prepared for, something could have happened."
On Friday, when Bryon Creech relented and was arrested about 10:30 a.m., officers were finally able to enter the apartment, where they found Braydon's body.
"We all hoped that the standoff would end peacefully," Ashley said. "Unfortunately, it did not, and a child lost his life."
'I am very afraid of him'
Tuell said Creech had a military background, and a website in Creech's name says he left the Marine Corps in 1999 after serving four years in the 4th Marine Regiment, 3rd Battalion. Creech was a machine gunner whose rank when he left the Marines was lance corporal, according to the page.
A Facebook page in Creech's name shows what appears to be an old picture of him wearing the standard Marine uniform.
Requests by the Tulsa World to verify Creech's service record were not fulfilled Friday.
Laurel Creech filed for a protective order against her husband on July 30, according to online court records. The couple lived in Sand Springs, in the 5300 block of South Bahama Avenue, at the time, according to the filing.
In her application for a protective order, Laurel Creech said her husband's anger had been escalating, and she described an incident in which he brandished a firearm while the couple were arguing.
"I am very afraid of him and know that things will get really bad when I file for divorce," she wrote in the order.
Nevertheless, she filed for divorce the next day. Those proceedings were ongoing, according to court records, with a status conference set for July 14.
Carter said that between Sept. 14, 2014, and March 16, Sand Springs police had contact with at least one member of the estranged couple "over 10 times." Four police contacts were for violation of protective order reports filed against Bryon Creech, who has been living in an apartment in Sapulpa, jail records indicate.
In another instance, Bryon Creech was accused of scraping his wife's vehicle with a key, which resulted in his being arrested and charged with destruction of property.
Carter said police had never arrested Bryon Creech for the protective order violations because Creech had always left his wife's home by the time police arrived.
"When that happens, we take that report and we put it into the (District Attorney's) Office to get an arrest warrant," Carter said. "If we get there and someone is actively violating the protective order at the time, then we make an arrest."
He said the couple's protective order allowed them to be near each other for the purposes of passing their child from one to the other. But that agreement can also pose problems, because something as simple as "calling someone a name" can be a protective order violation, he said.
"Having children and a protective order at the same time creates a lot of issues," Carter said.
'You could see the jo/
A neighbor who lived directly above the Tulsa apartment where the child was killed said Laurel Creech had moved in about a week ago and was trying to get away from her husband.
Deborah Solomon said Laurel Creech told her neighbors to call 911 if they saw her husband around the apartment because he was dangerous.
"I only knew that he was dangerous and that I couldn't trust him," said Solomon, who said she befriended Laurel Creech almost immediately after she moved in.
"She started to tell us the story about her husband," Solomon said. "She started to cry. We held her and prayed for her. I am deeply grieved by her son's death."
Solomon said the little boy was full of life. "He was gorgeous," she said. "You could see the joy in him."
Megan Edge, who lives a few hundred yards from the epicenter of the standoff, was shaken by the incident.
"I couldn't sleep all night," said Edge, who is the mother of two small children. "I was shaking and worried about that boy like he was my own son."
Richelle Johnson, who has lived at the apartment complex for two years, was in disbelief over the news that a boy was killed, allegedly by his parent.
"He didn't have to kill that child," Johnson said. "Whatever the father and mother were going through, the child didn't have anything to do with it."
Kendrick Marshall 918-581-8386
View the report
See the arrest report for Bryon Creech with the online version of this story.
