Suspect filmed crime rampage, police claim

Authorities have spent more than 24 hours seeking a man they say posted live videos to social media while running from police during a violent crime spree that included shooting two police officers, armed car thefts and killing his aunt and uncle, apparently attempting to sever their heads.

Michael Dale Vance Jr, a 38-year-old from Chandler, Oklahoma, is wanted on multiple charges, including two counts of first-degree murder. Police say he was last seen early on Monday about 50 kilometers from the Texas border in western Oklahoma, 170 km away from where the manhunt began on Sunday night.

The two police officers responded to shots fired on Sunday and were shot and suffered injuries that were not life-threatening. One person was arrested, the Lincoln County Sheriff ’s Office said, but Vance fled in a patrol vehicle.

Vance is suspected of later shooting a woman and stealing her vehicle at a mobile home park, then driving 13 km to the mobile home of his aunt and uncle and killing them, Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Mark Opgrande said.

The body of Ronald Everett Wilkson, 55, had a bullet wound and stab wounds to his neck “consistent with an attempt to sever his head,” Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Belanger wrote in an arrest affidavit. Valerie Kay Wilkson, 54, had similar wounds to her neck along with defensive wounds on her arms, the affidavit said.

Investigators found a large knife covered in blood inside the home, along with a bloodstained shirt that Vance appeared to be wearing when he apparently filmed two Facebook Live videos before going to the Wilksons’ home.

In one video, a man wearing a shirt that appears to be covered in blood says he’s about to steal another vehicle and that it’s “gonna be intense.” In another, which seems to be filmed inside a second vehicle, the same man says: “If you want to know what’s up next, stay tuned to your local news.”

A gun can be seen on the passenger seat.