Agency: 1 dead, 7 injured in Oklahoma festival shooting
TAFT, Okla. (AP) — Authorities said a 26-year-old man was in custody after one person was killed and seven people were injured in a shooting early Sunday at an outdoor festival in eastern Oklahoma, where witnesses described frantic people running for cover amid gunfire.
An arrest warrant was issued for Skyler Buckner and he turned himself in to the Muskogee County sheriff’s office Sunday afternoon, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said in a statement.
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OSBI said that those shot at the Memorial Day event in Taft, located about 45 miles (72 kilometers) southeast of Tulsa, ranged in age from 9 to 56.
A 39-year-old woman was killed, OSBI said. The injuries of those wounded were considered non-life-threatening.
OSBI had earlier said two juveniles were injured in the shooting but said Sunday afternoon that only one juvenile was injured.
Witnesses said an argument preceded the gunfire just after midnight, the agency said.
“We heard a lot of shots and we thought it was firecrackers at first,” said Sylvia Wilson, an owner of Taft’s Boots Cafe, which was open at the time to serve a surge of visitors to the small town for the gathering. “Then people start running and ducking. And we were yelling at everyone… ‘Get down! Get down!” Wilson said to The Associated Press by telephone from the café on Sunday morning.
About 1,500 people attended the event in Taft, which usually has a population of just a few hundred people.
Members of the Muskogee County Sheriff’s Office were in attendance and immediately began rendering aid, OSBI said.
“Bullets were literally flying everywhere,” Jasmayne Hill, who was working at a food truck during the event, told the Tulsa World.
