Tulsa shooting victim: Why target black people?
(CBS News) TULSA, Oklahoma - Why would two white men in Tulsa, Oklahoma, open fire on a group of African-Americans they apparently didn't even know?
CBS News correspondent Anna Werner reports that is a question that doesn't have an answer yet.
Jake England, 19, and Alvin Watts, 32, are being held tonight on suspicion of first-degree murder in the deaths early Friday morning of three men and the wounding of two others.
Survivors like Deon Tucker are now coming forward to talk about what happened that night.
"I remember standing there talking to my friend, a white truck pull up and a man ask me an address," Tucker said.
Tucker was outside about 1 a.m. Friday, when he says a truck stopped in front of his house.
"I turn off to look at my friend and when I turn back I heard gunshots," Tucker said.
Tucker was hit in the chest, and says he didn't know who the gunman was, but was surprised by his race.
"I could have understood it more if it had been a black guy because like I say, I'm up north. It's a lot of gang violence and different stuff, but a white man? I didn't understand that," Tucker said.
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Tucker said he just didn't understand why a white man was shooting at him.
It's a question the entire community has been trying to answer since Tucker and four other African-American residents were shot in the early morning hours of Good Friday. Three were killed.
Police are investigating motives for England and Watts. They say there may be a connection to the killing of England's father, Carl, two years ago.
In that shooting, Pernell Jefferson, a black man, was arrested as a person of interest. The day before Friday's shootings, the second anniversary of his father's death, Jake England used a racial slur in a Facebook posting describing his father's killer.
Tulsa County District Attorney Tim Harris says he will explore whether the evidence warrants charging the two men with a hate crime.
"We will seek accountability. We will seek justice, and we will seek punishment for this kind of treachery and evil in our community," Harris said.
Tucker said he finds the suggestion that they were deliberately targeting black people is disturbing.
"I hate that people think like that but you can't change some people who are disturbed like that. Ain't nothing you can do about it. Just hopefully get them people out of the street," Tucker said.
The two suspects are now being held on over $9 million bond apiece and likely facing murder charges.
The man who shot England's father two years ago, Pernell Jefferson, was cleared, and that shooting was ruled a justifiable homicide.
