Posted: May 28, 2014 9:47 PM
EDTUpdated: May 28, 2014 9:47 PM EDT
An officer with Tulsa Public
Schools is on suspension after he shot at a car with two students inside.
Right now Tulsa Public Schools
and the Tulsa Police Department are trying to find out why a campus officer
pulled the trigger knowing two minors were in the car.
At around 1:30 a.m. on Sunday
morning the officer spotted a car in a parking lot at Eliot Elementary School.
He thought it was kind of suspicious so he went to check it out.
TPD Sgt. David Walker who is
investigating this case, said the officer approached the passenger side of the
vehicle. He saw a teenage boy and girl inside and he asked them what they were
up to. After exchanging some words the officer walked over to the driver side
of the car and asked the teenage boy for identification.
"He had found from the
report I have seen that he found liquor in the car both students were under
age," said Chris Payne, Executive Director of Communications with Tulsa
Public Schools.
Officials said the Edison High
School students were engaging in intimate activity when the officer pulled up.
While the officer investigated the teenager backed his car up and then tried
taking off. That's when the officer shot at the car striking the tire.
"A 17- year -old kid
behind a 3,000 pound car is dangerous if he doesn't know what he is doing and I
think that is where we are at odds. Is to he shot into a car that had kids, but
that car was doing something in the officer's mind that can put us imperil,"
Sgt. Walker said.
The officer said he fired his
gun because he felt in danger of getting run over. Sgt. Walker interviewed both
the officer and teenage boy. He said their stories line up, until the point
where the student attempts to leave.
"It's matter of where the
officer was when the kid started to move. The officer explained that he was
behind the car at one point when the kid started to back up so he had to jump
out of the way for that," Sgt. Walker said.
The 17 -year -old told Sgt.
Walker his intentions were to leave, not harm the officer.
"He was kind of in a
situation he didn't want to be in so his 17- year- old reaction was to just
leave," Sgt. Walker said.
Tulsa Public Schools refuses to
release the name of the officer involved in the shooting. That officer is
suspended with pay pending the investigation.