Man in wheelchair fatally shot

Police are investigating the Wednesday night shooting death of a paraplegic man.

About 8:30 p.m., police were called to the City Heights North Apartments at 8527 Candlewood Drive, near Northwest Expressway and N Rockwell Avenue, said police Lt. Jeff Spruill.

A witness who had been inside an apartment with Sammy Atkinson Jr., 31, told police another man broke in and struggled with Atkinson, who used a wheelchair.

Atkinson got the intruder in a bear hug and then was shot, police said. Atkinson was pronounced dead at the scene.

Spruill said the shooter fled after the shooting. He is described as a black man with long "Afrostyle hair" who wasn't wearing a shirt.

Atkinson’s ex-girlfriend, Crystal Holland, said she had dated him for nearly 10 years and didn’t know about his death until Thursday morning.

She described Atkinson as a good person who had a hard life, saying he was “raised in the system.” She said he got out of the juvenile system when he was about 19 and that’s when they met up, but the hard times continued.

“He got shot in the back three times. He was paralyzed from the waist down before he was 20 years old,” Holland said.

The injuries led to him using a wheelchair.

Not long after being paralyzed, Atkinson's father was murdered, Holland said. She said his mother had recently died.

“He was in a wheelchair, so people, they probably targeted him,” Holland said.

She said Atkinson loved his nieces and nephews and took care of them like he was their father.

Atkinson's death is the 50th homicide of the year in Oklahoma City, according to police.

No arrests have been made and no other suspect information was released. Anyone with information about the shooting may call police at 297-1200.