Tulsa OK June 12 2019– Nightfall had come and people were milling about at a Tulsa apartment complex as several security officers patrolled the area for loiters or suspicious activity. It didn’t take long after the two officers had started their patrols for gunshots to ring out Wednesday morning at the Sierra Pointe Apartments near I-44 and Highway 169.
The officers, Jeff Ellis and Tyler Tate, quickly made their way to where the sounds of gunfire had come from and found chaos at the top of the stairs where two men, one holding a gun was standing.
The officers got behind cover and began giving commands for the men to come downstairs, drop their weapon and get on the ground. They complied, and a handgun was recovered from one of the men.
Ellis made his way to the top of the stairs where he found an apartment door kicked in and a man lying on a blood-spattered floor at the entrance. Dead from a gunshot wound to the head, police would later report.
Ellis yelled commands at shadows inside the darkened apartment while police and EMS were called and three more people quickly exited, hands raised, handcuffed and detained.
Tate, at the bottom of the stairs stood guard over the group being held at gunpoint, some proned out, others sitting on the ground, with their hands raised in the air.
Once Tulsa police and EMS units rolled up, officers secured the scene while paramedics confirmed the death of the man found lying at the door.
More than twenty minutes of video recorded on the bodycam worn by Ellis plays out the murder that took place and the raw dangers, and chaotic scene these two security officers faced but handled calmly, professionally and it clearly shows how they had apprehended a murder suspect without any other assistance.
