Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin gives an update about the shooting at the McLain High School football game
A shooting that left one teen dead, another critically wounded and an adult and child injured under Friday night lights has Tulsa police leaders looking for change.
Friday’s chaotic scene at a McLain High School homecoming football game was the fourth fatal shooting Tulsa police responded to that day and the second involving juveniles.
It’s the first time in more than 30 years that four people have been killed in one day in separate homicides across the city, according to Tulsa World records that date to 1989, but it’s not something that caught police by surprise.
“We have guns in the hands of people that should not have guns,” Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin said.
It’s a growing issue Franklin traces to the state’s constitutional carry law. Passed by the state Legislature in early 2019, it gives Oklahomans the right to carry firearms without a permit or training.
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Far too many Oklahomans store those guns irresponsibly, Franklin said, lamenting that many people leave their guns in their cars, the glass windows of which are no match for burglars.
“We also have a fair number of people that for some reason forget to lock their car doors, particularly at home in their driveway,” Franklin said, possibly thinking it’s safe near their home or in a gated community, when “that’s so far from the truth.”
“If we could get people to ensure that their vehicles are locked and to take those guns out of the vehicle, we would go a long way.”
Combine that easy-access with teens with still-developing brains, and Tulsa has seen and continues to see kids who haven’t reached two decades of life die or kill by gunfire.
“We’re witnessing a (new) amount of violence and a group of individuals who just don’t seem to care,” Franklin said.
Two uniformed police officers were present at the McLain stadium when the shooting broke out, Franklin said, but that didn’t stop the shooter or shooters — who remained at large Monday evening — from “pulling out a firearm and shooting into a crowd.”
Terron Yarbrough, 17, died of a gunshot wound just outside the stadium as the crowd scattered. He’s the eighth teen shot to death in Tulsa this year, and Homicide Unit Lt. Brandon Watkins said he has had his fill.
“All of these seem so pointless and needless,” Watkins said. “I mean, you shake your head and you wonder why, but once you’ve seen the exact same thing over and over and over and over, you just want it to stop.”
Investigators have worked day and night since the barrage of shootings toward making arrests in each case.
Detectives were attempting to talk with the now-stabilized 17-year-old who was critically wounded at McLain on Monday afternoon, Watkins said, and he urged anyone who witnessed the altercation or picked up evidence from the scene to contact the police.
Anyone with information about the crime is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 918-596-COPS (2677), at bit.ly/TCStips or through the Tulsa Tips app, which can be downloaded from the Google Play or iTunes stores.
Tipsters may remain anonymous, and cash rewards are paid for information leading to arrests.
