NORMAN, Okla. (KFOR) – Norman Police Department body cam video showed the wild events that took place in an eight-hour standoff in east Cleveland County on March 28.
It was a man shooting guns on his property near 58th Avenue NE and Robinson Street. The only problem was his targets were apparently houses in the area. Soon after police got there, he also started shooting at them. Police said when they first arrived at the scene, there was hope that it was just a bad backdrop and someone was doing this on accident. However, as time went on, police said it became apparent that wasn’t the case.
The body camera video shows police officers taking cover behind one of their vehicles as multiple shots were fired. At one point you can even hear bullets whiz by. It all started with a call to 911, with someone who said their house was hit by the gunfire. Police said the man was shooting a variety of guns repeatedly. The body camera video shows several instances of bullets being shot in their direction.
“So, they’re realizing, they’re actually being targeted,” said Capt. Brent Barbour with the Norman Police Department.
Several Norman officers were pinned down without any idea of exactly where the bullets were coming from. All the while, neighbors in the area were trapped inside their homes.
“Let’s go! He’s shooting at you now! Get out of the house!” an officer said in the body camera footage.
“We are stuck and we cannot move,” Lt. Marcus Savage with the Norman Police Department said.
“It was scary,” said Brenda Greenwood, a neighbor in the area who had to be evacuated.
The officers rescued Brenda and her husband Charles from their home. They had to hide behind it for two and a half hours as the gunfire continued coming from a wooded area.
“We don’t know where he is,” the officer said in the body camera video. “He has changed directions. He’s either targeting us when we went over the fence or he has changed direction of shooting, but they were really close.”
"We waited and we waited,” Savage said. “What seemed to be forever."
“It made it a very dangerous situation,” Barbour said.
Police tried sending up a drone to get a better idea of the suspects location. At that point, they didn’t know the drone would be what saved their lives.
“I think he’s shooting at your drone,” the officer in the body camera video said as gunshots rang out.
"When the drone went up, it took his attention off of us,” said Kyle Hicks, a patrol officer with the Norman Police Department.
The drone distraction ended up giving them a chance to get the officers and the residents out to safety.
“It was intense,” Brenda Greenwood said. “It was pretty intense.”
Police said after multiple attempts throughout the afternoon and evening of trying to contact the individual, they eventually made contact. However, the suspect turned the gun on himself and died on scene. The man owned the property he was shooting from and is believed to be the only person that lived there. After further investigation, police said three separate houses, a large workshop, an RV and two vehicles experienced damage. Some experienced damage worse than others. Nobody was injured because of the gunfire.
