TULSA, Okla. — Two children are safe tonight after police said a hostage situation left their mother dead. Police said they shot to death the man who took the children and their mother hostage.
Police rescued the two children late this afternoon at the Seminole Apartments.
Right now, the children are protective custody.
Tulsa Police said last night they responded to an altercation in the same unit where today's hostage situation happened. They said officers on a different shift responded to that call.
Officers said last night they recovered some bullet casings from that apartment. That incident is still under investigation. Then, today at around 1:00 p.m. , the suspect called police.
"He was just kind of rambling in general and being nonsensical," Capt. Meulenberg with Tulsa Police said.
Officers were dispatched to the scene.
When they arrived, they found the suspect, a 28-year-old woman, and two small children inside. No names have been released yet.
“We did make contact with the suspect who was leaning out of a window and was yelling at the officers, but nothing specific, just kind of more rants of paranoia,” Meulenberg said.
When officers asked him to send the children out, police said the suspect pointed at the back door, that's when the seven-year-old came out.
“The boy had a ligature around his neck, which was basically like a cell phone charging cord around his neck and like a strangulation type configuration. He also had one of his hands bound and tied up at one point, he told the officers that he was tied up behind his back,” Meulenberg said.
Police said the boy told them the man and his mother had been arguing all night.
“He conveyed to the officers that his mother was assaulted and also bound, and potentially strangled," Meulenberg said.
Police asked the suspect to let the little girl go as well.
“He said that he was not going to let this four-year-old girl go because he thought that we would basically do him harm should he do that," Meulenberg said.
Police said they kept talking to the suspect.
"At some point, he pushed the lifeless body of the 28-year-old female down the stairs, we believe her to be the childrens' mother," Meulenberg said.
When that happened police said they called in their special operations team to rescue the girl.
"Officers basically did a dynamic, they rushed up the stairs, they had a confrontation with the suspect. Shots were fired by us. We neutralized the suspect. We did rescue the four-year-old and rushed her out of the location. She also had a ligature around her neck and she was clearly bound at one point in time."
Police are looking into t he relationship between the suspect and the woman. The officers involved with shooting the suspect have been placed on administrative leave.
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