Suspect Arrested and Crowd Rioting in Okla.Standoff

Suspect arrested after Okla. standoff

Members of the Tulsa Police Special Operations Team team bring in an armored vehicle as they surround a murder suspect barricaded inside the Morning Star Apartments complex late Saturday. Sherry Brown/Tulsa World

April 15, 2007

TULSA, Okla. -A murder suspect surrendered to police following a three-hour standoff at an apartment complex that was complicated by a crowd of bystanders who threw rocks at police, authorities said.

After dispersing the crowd, officers negotiated with murder suspect Rico Starks, 19, for several hours before he surrendered at about 12:30 a.m. EDT on Sunday, said Officer Scott Walton.

Walton said police were not sure whether Starks had been armed, since he had been moving from location to location in the evacuated building.

Walton said officers were first called to the scene about 9 p.m. and encountered neighborhood opposition.

"They were met by a large group — over 100 people — that made an effort to assault officers by throwing rocks at their vehicles and the officers themselves," Walton said. "There were shots fired and the officers had their hands full trying to contain the crowd."

The officers called in reinforcements to help disperse the crowd. Some of the additional police wore riot gear and carried batons. Dominic Armstrong, a cameraman from television station KOTV, said he was standing next to a vehicle that was hit by gunfire from the crowd.

"Early on, there was a lot of chaos, and we didn't know what we had," he told the Tulsa World newspaper.

Starks is charged with second-degree murder in the killing of 18-year-old Mark Jordan, who was shot Aug. 21 in north Tulsa.