Eight people were shot or injured after the Oklahoma City Thunder basketball team defeated the Los Anegles Lakers last night in the second round of the NBA playoffs. The shootings occurred near the area of the stadium where the game was played as fans were leaving the stadium.
Thousands of fans were walking the streets of downtown Oklahoma City around 11:30 p.m. when multiple gun shots were fired near the Sonic headquarters at Mickey Mantle Drive and Reno Avenue. People immediately fell to the ground.
Police confirmed eight people were shot; one is in critical condition while the other seven sustained non-life threatening condition. A pregnant woman in the vicinity was not shot, but became distressed and had to be treated by medical staff.
Apparently, police are now saying that the shooting began as a scuffle between a group of men and a group of women, with the shooters being members of the male group who first fired their guns at the women:
Capt. Dexter Nelson said some scuffles broke out in a crowd of people walking east toward the Bricktown district, a popular nightlife area.
“Some girls got into it with a group of guys, and the guys opened fire on the women,” Nelson said.
No arrests have been made yet. I guess we have our own version of soccer hooligans except our have guns. Applicable Oklahoma gun laws:
“Oklahoma is a shall-issue state, meaning authorities are required to issue a carry permit to all qualified applicants. Applicants are required to be 21 years old, successfully complete a firearms safety course, and submit to a background check.
Oklahoma also has a “Stand Your Ground” law in effect since 2006, which may or may not come into play if an arrest of the shooters is made and they are indicted:
Oklahoma has a self-defense law based on the castle doctrine. Enacted by the state in 2006, Oklahoma’s “stand your ground” extends greater protection to armed crime victims than most other states. The law provides for persons to defend themselves, by any means necessary, if their home, vehicle or place of business is invaded by someone else. The state does not have a duty to retreat, permitting the use of deadly force in such circumstances so long as the victim has a reasonable belief that the person breaking in intends to use physical force.
The law also extends civil and criminal immunity to persons who injure or kill someone while being criminally attacked.
It’s not known if the stand your ground law could be raised as defense. The SYG law in Oklahoma is modeled on the one in Florida where the recent shooting of Trayvon Martin occurred. Here is the language from the applicable OK statute:
“A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force, if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony …”
The full text of the OK Stand Your Ground Law can be found here.
