Crime & Justice
Arrests made in shootings that terrorized Tulsa’s Black community
Police backed by a helicopter arrested two men early Sunday and said they would face murder charges in the recent shootings that terrorized Tulsa’s black community and left three people dead and two others critically wounded.
Police arrested two men early Sunday and said they would be charged with murder in the recent shootings that terrorized Tulsa’s Black community and left three people dead and two others critically wounded.
Shooting in Tulsa’s Black community
Police spokesman Officer Jason Willingham said the two men were arrested at a home just north of Tulsa about 2 a.m. Sunday and were expected to be charged with three counts of first-degree murder and two counts of shooting with intent to kill in the spate of shootings early Friday. He said police made the arrests after receiving an anonymous tip.
While police identified the men as white and all the victims are Black, authorities have not described the shootings as racially motivated and declined to discuss that issue Sunday.
Community leaders, however, expressed concern about the motivation for the shootings on Tulsa’s Black community, as well as the possibility that they would provoke a vigilante response. Rev. Warren Blakney Sr., president of the Tulsa NAACP, said Sunday that word of the arrests had provided a great sense of relief.
“The community once again can go about its business without fear of there being a shooter on the streets on today, on Easter morning,” he said.
Police said they linked the shootings because they happened about the same time within a few miles of each other, and all five victims were out walking when they were shot. Four of the victims were found in yards, and one in the street.
Police have said they don’t believe the victims knew one another. They identified those killed as Dannaer Fields, 49, Bobby Clark, 54, and William Allen, 31. They declined to name those who survived.
“There obviously still is a lot of investigation” ahead, Officer Willingham said Sunday. “We don’t have a motive at this time. We are still asking questions and hopefully that will become clear in coming days.”
Arrests
He identified the men in custody as Jake England, 19, and Alvin Watts, 32, but gave no hometowns for them. He said they were taken early Sunday for questioning at a downtown Tulsa police station, where they would be booked and jailed. More details would be provided at an afternoon news conference, he said.
It was not clear early Sunday whether the men had attorneys.
Tulsa police had at least two dozen officers investigating the case, along with the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service and other agencies. A special operations team and a fugitive operations group helped make the arrests, Officer Willingham said. He did know whether the men were armed when they were taken into custody.
After receiving a tip, police found the men at one spot and then followed them as they walked to another place about a half-mile away, where they were arrested, he said.
“We’ve been on them since early in the evening (of Saturday),” Officer Willingham said. “We had been doing surveillance and using a helicopter.”
Tulsa Police Chief Chuck Jordan said Saturday that police would do whatever it took to apprehend suspects in what he called vicious and cowardly attacks.
Crime & Justice
Exonerated man on a mission to rebuild his life
C.J. Rice, a man who served more than 12 years behind bars for an attempted murder he was falsely convicted of, was officially exonerated on March 18, 2024. He is now on a mission to rebuild his life.
Charles “CJ” Rice was just 17 years old when he was convicted of a crime he did not commit.
CJ Rice Exonerated
Now 30 year old Rice is using the injustice of the last 13 years to galvanize the life he almost spent behind bars after being exonerated and declared legally innocent of the crime he was convicted of in 2013 on March 18, 2024.
According to the GoFundMe, CJ wants to “embrace this opportunity” and become a paralegal.
With the help of Dream.org, the GoFundMe aims to help CJ start a new life with everything from a place to stay to clothes to wear as he builds a new future.
The CJ Rice case
CJ Rice, formally known Charles J. Rice, was convicted in a September 2011 shooting for attempted murder and sentenced to 30-60 years behind bars in 2013.
According to the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, the South Philadelphia shooting left a woman identified as Latrice Johnson, a 6-year-old girl and two others injured.
Johnson called 911 after the shooting and described the suspects as two men running away in hoodies and black sweatpants but couldn’t fully identify them.
Through an initial investigation with victims in the hospital, Rice’s co-defendant, Tyler Linder, was identified as one of the shooters. Detectives interviewed Johnson while she was in the hospital and she identified 17-year-old Rice as one of the shooters running away although she hadn’t seen the teen in a few years. Rice had been friends with Johnson’s son when he was younger, according to the Pennsylvania Innocence Project.
In her description, Johnson said Rice was wearing a hoodie and claimed that she was able to see his full face and long braids poking out the side of the hood. However, Rice’s arrest photo depicted him with shorter cornrows flushed against his head. Despite this, a case against Rice and Linder was built.
According to the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, among the evidence was a theory that the shooting was retaliatory, which wasn’t proven. That’s because Rice was shot and injured a few days prior. It’s alleged the suspects ran from the scene, and Rice’s counsel never used his medical records as evidence to help Rice’s case.
Rice’s case received national attention after CNN anchor Jake Tapper began reporting on it. His father, Dr. Theodore Tapper, is Rice’s former doctor and treated his injuries.
Although it was alleged that the shooters ran from the 2011 crime scene, this is something that Dr. Tapper believed Rice just physically couldn’t do at the time.
Officials believed the 2011 shooting involved gang affiliations, leading the DA’s Gun Violence Task Force to begin their investigation to see whether or not Rice could be re-tried for the shooting or to dismiss the charges in full.
This suggestion of motive and the sole faulty eyewitness identification of CJ led to his conviction on four counts for attempted murder.
A free man
Rice’s defense counsel filed a habeas petition to get CJ out of prison and have his conviction overturned.
On March 18, 2024, the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas granted the Commonwealth’s motion to dismiss all charges against Rice, officially making CJ a free man.
Crime & Justice
Driver intentionally mowed down couple, killing wife, after calling 911 with ‘threats to shoot a school’
Shaunda Bizzell was killed by a man who drove his car into her and her husband minutes after he called 911 and made threats to bomb a building, police say.
Derek and Shaunda Bizzell were taking an evening stroll in their Chesterfield, Virginia neighborhood Monday night when a crazed man plowed into them.
The unimaginable for Derek and Shaunda Bizzell
“We walked around the curb. We could see a car coming up the middle of the street like cars always do, and then he got closer to us,” Derek Bizzell told WWBT. “I could see him veer. I screamed her name, and all I heard was the thump.”
The husband wound up under the car, while his wife landed on top. When he grabbed his phone to call 911, he was too shocked to be able to speak, but good samaritans who rushed over to help called in the deadly emergency.
Before hitting the couple, police say the man called 911 with “threats to shoot a school, bomb a building and assault police officers.”
Suspect
The driver, identified as Daniel Anderson, 22, purportedly has a history of mental health issues, according to his father. He “intentionally steered” his 2012 Hyundai toward the innocent couple, police said.
Shaunda Bizzell, 42, a married mom of two adult children, was taken to a nearby hospital but died from her injuries. Her husband was also hurt in the collision but has since been released from the hospital.
“I’m a little banged up, but if I could trade places with my wife, I would,” the heartbroken man said.
It was Shaunda’s first time she’d joined her husband Derek on his regular evening stroll around their neighborhood in Chesterfield, according to WWBT.
Derek on losing his wife Shaunda Bizzell
Bizzell said he has not been sleeping or eating, and feeling “just numbness” since losing his beloved wife.
He added that while he has not forgiven the driver, “I do pray for his family because I’m pretty sure they are hurting the same way we are hurting right now,” he said.
Anderson has been charged with murder, malicious wounding, making threats of death or bodily injury and making threats to bomb or damage buildings.
He is being held without bond.
Crime & Justice
Jam Master Jay’s godson and childhood friend found guilty of murder in 2002 killing of Run-DMC pioneering DJ
Ronald Washington, Jay’s childhood friend, and Karl Jordan Jr., Jay’s godson, were convicted of murder in what prosecutors say was motivated by greed.
Two men were found guilty of murder Tuesday in the 2002 killing of Jam Master Jay, the pioneering DJ of the groundbreaking hip hop trio Run-DMC.
2 found guilty of Jam Master Jay’s murder
Ronald Washington, Jay’s childhood friend, and Karl Jordan Jr., Jay’s godson, were convicted of murder in what prosecutors say was motivated by greed and a drug deal gone awry.
Pioneer murdered in 2002
Jam Master Jay, born Jason Mizell, was shot and killed at a recording studio in Jamaica, Queens, on October 30, 2002.
For years, no one was arrested for the slaying, leaving one of the most shocking shootings in music history unsolved.
In August 2020, authorities would finally get a break in the case, unsealing a criminal indictment alleging Washington and Jordan conspired to kill Jam Master Jay in retaliation for a drug dispute.
A third defendant, Jay Bryant, was charged in May 2023 with murder while engaged in narcotics trafficking and firearm-related murder. He has pleaded not guilty and is set to go on trial separately in January 2026.
Witness testimony in Jam Master Jay murder trial
The verdict followed a four-week trial in which jurors heard from several witnesses who recounted the moment the pair killed the legendary DJ inside his 24/7 Studio in Hollis.
A witness, who was at the recording studio that night, testified Washington and Jordan came in armed, and he alleged Jordan shot Jay in the head.
Uriel Rincon was playing the “Madden” football video game with Mizell at the studio when the two were ambushed. He suffered a gunshot wound to his left leg from Jordan, also known as “Little D”.
Rincon, said he had kept the attackers’ identities secret because he was “confused and scared,” reports ABC.
Defense attorneys for the men convicted of murder say Jay Bryant is the real killer
A hat found next to Jam Master Jay’s body contained only Bryant’s DNA, and Bryant was the only defendant seen on a security camera, according to the attorneys.
Washington and Jordan each face between 20 years-to-life behind bars at their sentencing.
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