Breaking News for Black America » Oklahoma

Man Surrenders After Staying On Top Of TV Tower For 6 Days

cganemccalla — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 17:43:14 +0000

TULSA, Okla — A 25-year-old man who has struggled with mental illness surrendered to police after staying on top of a TV tower in Tulsa, Oklahoma for six days.

William Boyd Sturdivant II was taken to a hospital and later a mental health facility after finally getting off the tower.

The New York Daily News reports:

“He was very weak. We didn’t force him to come down,” Ashley said of the man, who climbed about 100 feet up the Clear Channel communications tower last Thursday.

During the six days he was on the tower, rescue crews offered him food and water, conditional on him agreeing to come down from his perch, but he rebuffed them.

Woman Tried To Kill Lady Because She Looked Like Casey Anthony

NewsOne Staff — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 17:22:25 +0000

OKLAHOMA — Just when you thought having the same name as Casey Anthony was dangerous, 26-year-old Sammay Blackwell in Oklahoma said a crazed woman rammed her car, which caused it to flip over, because she believed she was Casey Anthony.

Blackwell said Shireen Nalley entered her job at a convenience store and began eyeing her suspiciously. When Blackwell walked to her car that evening, Nalley was parked outside waiting for her. The woman chased Blackwell, ramming her car twice into Blackwell’s causing it to flip two and half times.

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“She said that I was trying to hurt babies, I was killing babies and she was going to stop it before it happened again,” Blackwell recalled. “She could have taken me away from my family, my daughter.”

While Blackwell slightly resembles Casey Anthony, Blackwell’s daughter’s name is eerily “Caylee,” the name of Anthony’s deceased daughter, who she was acquitted of murdering.

According to Oklahoma’s KWTV, cops chased Nalley for a while and eventually arrested her for assault and battery. The woman told police she was “trying to save the children.”

Devastating! Second Round Of Midwest Tornadoes Kills 15

Charles Dixon — Thu, 26 May 2011 15:58:42 +0000

OKLAHOMA — The Oklahoma medical examiner’s office has raised the death toll up to 15 for a second round of tornadoes that ravaged several states with winds up to 151 mph.

Among those killed was a 15-month-old boy, and rescuers were hunting for his missing 3-year-old brother.

The Daily News Reports:

Violent weather conditions ripped up trees, tossed cars and destroyed buildings over Tuesday night and early Wednesday, killing nine in Oklahoma, four in Arkansas and two in Kansas.
Meanwhile, the battering storms pushed east and showed no signs of subsiding, with forecasters placing much of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi on tornado watch.

The storm comes after the country’s deadliest tornado in 60 years struck the Missouri town of Joplin, killing 125 people.

Oklahoma City Bombing Survivor Graduates From High School

Charles Dixon — Tue, 17 May 2011 23:45:39 +0000

A young survivor of the bombing that destroyed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City has graduated from high school and will be attending college in the Fall.

The Grio reports:

Two-year-old Donquay Hammons was being taken from America kids daycare downtown — bloodied and injured from the Murrah federal building bombing across the street.

Wildfires In Oklahoma Force Hundreds To Flee

Rep. Sally Kern Apologizes For Racist Comments

Charles Dixon — Sun, 01 May 2011 03:13:27 +0000

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma Republican Sally Kern apologized Thursday for statements she made against women and Black people during a debate on affirmative action.

NEWSOK reports:

“I want to humbly apologize for my statements last night about African-Americans and women,” Kern, R-Oklahoma City, said in a statement. “I believe that our government should not provide preference based on race or gender. I misspoke while trying to convey this point last night during debate.”

President of the Oklahoma chapter of NAACP, Anthony Douglas, said the apology was not enough.“You cannot commit racism and then offer an apology for the racist statement that you make,” he said. “The citizens of Oklahoma, the constituents can no longer stand by and allow this type of action to happen.”

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Republican: Blacks Are In Prison Because They Don’t Want To Study

cganemccalla — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:19:29 +0000

OKLAHOMA-Republican state senator from Oklahoma, Sally Kern said at a recent event that the reason minorities don’t earn as much as white people is that they don’t work as hard and that African Americans are in prison because they don’t want to study in school.

Rep. Sally Kern, R-Oklahoma City, said minorities earn less than white people because they don’t work as hard and have less initiative. TulsaWorld reports:

“We have a high percentage of blacks in prison, and that’s tragic, but are they in prison just because they are black or because they don’t want to study as hard in school? I’ve taught school, and I saw a lot of people of color who didn’t study hard because they said the government would take care of them.”

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Tea Party Rep: “Black Men Prefer Drug Dealing To Education”

Blake Griffin’s Close Friend, Ex-Teammate Dies Of Cancer

cganemccalla — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 22:12:43 +0000

LOS ANGELES-After being named to the All-Star game as the first rookie since Yao Ming, Blake Griffin received some unsettling news. His high school teammate and friend, Wilson Holloway had died of cancer.

Top 25 Michael Jordan moments

ESPN reports:

Holloway and Griffin both attended Oklahoma Christian High School, where Holloway played football and basketball. After the Saints won their fourth straight basketball title in March 2007, Griffin, who had 22 points and seven rebounds in the championship game, credited his teammates. One of those was Holloway, who added 14 points and nine rebounds.

Holloway went on to play football at Tulsa, redshirting his freshman year in 2007. The 6-foot-6, 275-pound offensive tackle was diagnosed with cancer in March 2008, but he received treatment and played in six games that following season.

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Blake Griffin Will Participate In 2011 NBA Slam Dunk Contest

Kobe Bryant

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Women Accused Of Stealing $2,600 In Clothes By Hiding It In Body Fat

cganemccalla — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 20:44:33 +0000

OKLAHOMA-The Orlando Sentinel is reporting on an incident in which two women were accused of stealing merchandise from a store by hiding it in their body fat.

They say they took four pair of boots, three pair of jeans, a wallet and gloves; $2,600 worth of store merchandise.

Ailene Brown, 28, and 37-year-old Shmeco Thomas were arrested for shoplifting and are facing felony charges.

Officer James Hamm said, “These two were actually concealing them in areas of their body where excess skin was, under their chest area and armpits.”

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87-Year-Old Grandma Sues Police For Being Tasered On Oxygen Machine

NewsOne Staff — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 18:38:25 +0000

OKLAHOMA CITY – An 87-year-old grandmother subdued by police with a stun gun while she was lying in bed hooked up to an oxygen machine is suing her Oklahoma hometown.

Attorney Brian Dell said Tuesday that he filed the lawsuit June 21 on behalf of his client, Lona Varner. He did not specify the amount she’s seeking from the city of El Reno but said it’s at least $75,000.

Varner’s grandson called 911 on Dec. 22 and told the dispatcher his grandmother “wanted to end her life” and that he was concerned she had taken some unknown medicine.

Officer Thomas Duran says in a police report that Varner pulled a kitchen knife from under her pillow and threatened to stab and kill him if he tried to take her from her home.

Oklahoma Pastor Slain In “Horrific” Scene

Smokey D. Fontaine — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:13:39 +0000

The scene inside a small Pentecostal churchwhere a pastor was slain was “horrific,” an Oklahoma district attorneysaid Tuesday, calling it the most brutal he has seen in nearly 20 years as a prosecutor.

Police have released scant information about the killing of 61-year-old Carol Daniels, whose body was found Sunday inside the Christ Holy Sanctified Church, a weather-beaten building on a rundown block near downtown Anadarko. A preliminary autopsy deemed Daniels’ death a homicide caused by “multiple sharp force injuries,” said Cherokee Ballard, spokeswoman for the state Medical Examiner’s office. She declined to discuss further details.

“I’ve prosecuted over 50 murders,” District Attorney Bret Burns said. “This is the most horrific crime scene I’ve ever witnessed.” He declined to elaborate, saying he did not want to jeopardize the investigation.

With little official word on the grisly killing, rumors in the town were swirling as people wondered what motivated the crime and who was responsible. Burns has called for a meeting of local pastors on Wednesday.

State Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Jessica Brown also would not say anything about the time of Daniels’ death, a possible motive or what evidence was collected at the scene.

Authorities do not have any suspects, she said, and were offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

“Right now we have more questions than answers,” Brown said. “The few answers we do have, we want to hold on to. That might help us in the long run.”

Daniels made the 60-mile trek from Oklahoma City every week to preach, even though the church had no regular congregation. Ezra Randle, Oklahoma overseer for the Christ Holy Sanctified Church, said Daniels had been traveling to Anadarko for four or five years and 85 percent of the time, she made the trip alone.

“I tried to ask her why she kept doing it and she would say until God releases me, I will go down there,” said Randle, pastor of Grace Temple Christ Holy Sanctified Church in Elk City.

Icey Simmons, 85, a resident of the Silver Crest Nursing Center, said she would see Daniels nearly every weekend when Simmons would go to the church for Sunday service or when Daniels would drop by.

“She and I would just go down there and pray by ourselves,” she said. “I can’t believe it.

“She was just as sweet as she could be, never did anything to hurt nobody.”

Pastor Steve Palczynsky of the Cedar Hill Church of God in Anadarko said lack of official word is disconcerting and that he’s taken extra steps to make sure his church is secure.

“The first thing I thought about, being human, was that maybe it was a serial killer and maybe he has something out for preachers, but the Lord takes care of us,” he said.

Tracy Schumpert, pastor of the town’s First United Methodist Church, said members of the local clergy will meet Wednesday with Burns to discuss the case.

“It’s still very new, and we don’t know what to think,” she said. “Anything that happens like that, it’s a community concern.”