First-degree murder is among the charges filed Monday against an Owasso man who is accused of targeting homeless people in a pair of hit-and-run incidents last week.
Jeremy Dean Thacker, 40, is charged in the death of a man in addition to five counts of assault and battery with a deadly or dangerous weapon. He also faces a charge of leaving the scene of a fatal crash and two counts of leaving the scene of an injury crash, according to records filed in Tulsa County District Court.
Thacker is accused of killing 46-year-old Shawn Birdo by intentionally running over him and two others as they slept under the Interstate 244 overpass at Cheyenne Avenue on the morning of Sept. 4. The other two people — James Russell and Birdo’s girlfriend, Cynthia Wallace — survived the impact.
Authorities allege that Thacker fled the scene in his 1991 Toyota pickup and later that evening ran over a woman’s legs near a QuikTrip store at 15th Street and Denver Avenue, sending her to the hospital.
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Thacker was taken into custody the following day after police received a tip from the public.
Before the first hit-and-run, Thacker went to the area of the convenience store and assaulted a sleeping man, identified as Jackie Morris, with a metal pipe-like object, police allege. Morris reportedly fought back against his assailant and yelled for police until the man fled in his pickup.
Investigators said they are unsure of Thacker’s motives in the assaults, though multiple posts on his Facebook page appeared to disparage homeless people.
Although most of the victims in the attacks were homeless, family members of Birdo told the Tulsa World that he had a home and was sleeping below the overpass to protect his girlfriend, who was homeless.
Thacker, who has been in the Tulsa Jail without bond since his arrest, is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday.
