Driver dies in chase after OKC Hobby Lobby shooting
Two people are dead after a highspeed pursuit through multiple counties and a fatal shooting at a Hobby Lobby facility in southwest Oklahoma City late Wednesday.
Shortly before 4:50 p.m. Wednesday, a Hobby Lobby employee allegedly shot a supervisor after a “workrelated argument” at the distribution warehouse in the 3700 block of S Council Road, according to a news release from the Oklahoma City Police Department. The gunman fled the business in a red Dodge vehicle, eyewitnesses told officers, and the supervisor, 69-year-old Douglas Smith, died at the scene.
About 7:15 p.m., authorities located a vehicle and a man fitting eyewitness description at a gas station near Interstate 35 and State Highway 51 in Stillwater. Police said the man sped away as they attempted to converge on the location and headed southbound on I-35.
Numerous agencies pursued the vehicle as officials said it approached “speeds upward of 100 mph” through Logan County. According to Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Eric Foster, about 7:45 p.m., as the driver entered Kingfisher County, the vehicle abruptly rolled off the roadway near State Highway 33 and N2960 Road.
Law enforcement agencies said they fired no weapons as they approached the wreck, but the driver was unresponsive to commands to leave the crashed vehicle. Authorities eventually removed the driver from the vehicle, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said the medical examiner’s office would determine the cause of the driver’s death.
Officials opened an investigation into the shooting and the pursuit. Multiple agencies assisted Oklahoma City police Wednesday, including the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, sheriff’s deputies in Kingfisher and Logan counties, and police departments in Cashion, Crescent and Guthrie.