Police ID Okla. restaurant gunman killed by armed bystanders
OKLAHOMA CITY - Police have identified the man who allegedly opened fire in a restaurant Thursday and was later killed by bystanders as 28-year-old Alexander C. Tilghman. According to Oklahoma City Police Captain Bo Mathews, Tilghman, wearing eye and ear protection, stood in the doorway of a Louie's on the Lake around 6:30 p.m. and began shooting into the restaurant with a handgun.
A 39-year-old woman and two juvenile girls were shot and wounded, and an unnamed man fell and broke his arm while fleeing, according to a statement from police.
Mathews told reporters that during the shooting, two men saw what was happening and separately went to their vehicles, retrieved their handguns, and shot Tilghman. Police identified the two men as Juan Carlos Nazario and Bryan Wittle.
"They stopped an incident that was very tragic," said Mathews. "We have no idea what he was going to do when he left the restaurant."
Police did not release a motive in the shooting. Captain Mathews said that "it doesn't look like he knew anybody in the restaurant."
Mathews said that police last had contact with Tilghman in 2003 when he was 13 and arrested for domestic assault and battery. A woman who answered the phone at the home believed to belong to Tilghman's mother declined to comment when contacted by The Associated Press. Telephone and text messages seeking comment from Nazario and Wittle were not immediately returned.
"We're really blessed that only three people were shot and didn't lose their lives," said Mathews.
In April, a restaurant patron wrestled an assault-style rifle away from a gunman at a Waffle House in Nashville, Tennessee. Four people were killed in that shooting. Police have said there would have been far more casualties if it weren't for the patron's quick thinking.
Dennis Will says his daughter Natalie Will and 12-year-old granddaughter Niah were walking into the restaurant Thursday night for a birthday party, when a gunman opened fire, reports CBS News' David Begnaud.
"She's still pretty shook up," Will said. "Evidently the shooter was in the tree line, and they were both shot by the front door."
Will says his daughter was grazed by a bullet, and his granddaughter shot. Natalie Will told CBS News they ran and hid in the restaurant bathroom with three other women until the shooting was over. \
Twelve-year-old Niah is out of surgery, and the police said she is expected to survive.
Dennis Will said he is grateful the people who stopped the gunman were there.