Oklahoma City dealing with five homicides in four days

It was a violent weekend in Oklahoma City, with five lives lost over the course of four days and police officials said there’s no clear reason as to why.

“We really have no explanation why,” said Capt. Bo Mathews, Oklahoma City Police Department spokesman.

Studies have shown that crime rates rise as favorable weather increases in the spring and summer months, but Mathews said he didn't know how much weather played a part.

“We had a whole month of good weather, I mean we had some rain and stuff, but … nothing happened, we didn’t have any homicides. Then, all of a sudden over one weekend, this random one weekend, we had four.”

About 7:50 p.m. Friday, officers were called to an apartment complex in the 7200 block of NW 10 on a reported shooting. At the complex, officers found 39-year-old Lemuel McCoy suffering from a gunshot wound.

McCoy was taken to a local hospital where he died.

Witnesses at the scene told investigators that Antonio Bates, 43, had shot McCoy and fled the scene. Witnesses also said that McCoy was having a “mental health issue” and had been kicking his vehicle’s windshield and then struck the side mirror of a car Bates was in. Bates reportedly exited the car and fired multiple shots at McCoy, according to a court affidavit.

Police said as of Tuesday afternoon that Bates remained at-large.

Hours after McCoy died, police were called out to investigate a fatal shooting on Interstate 235. Officers arrived on scene to the 2400 block of I-235 about 2:10 a.m. where they found Rasheem Henderson, 26, dead from a gunshot wound and his twin brother, Raheem Henderson, suffering from a gunshot wound.

Investigators determined that the two men were in a vehicle traveling south on the highway when a sport utility vehicle pulled along the driver’s side and opened fire. Raheem Henderson was taken to a local hospital, treated for his injuries and released. Saturday was the twins' birthday.

No arrests have been reported in the shooting.

Also on Saturday, Selena Escalera-Pacheco was killed in her southwest Oklahoma City apartment. About 3:15 p.m., officers arrived at the apartment complex in the 1200 block of W Interstate 240 Service Road.

Inside, officers found Escalera-Pacheco dead from what appeared to be a “vicious edged weapon attack.” A witness told an investigator that the woman was stabbed to death by Gabriel Aguilar, 24, after he entered her apartment, according to a court affidavit.

Aguilar then fled, but left his wallet at the crime scene. A witness told investigators that they had seen text messages between the victim and Aguilar which reportedly said “he would not allow her to leave him.”

Aguilar was arrested and booked into the Oklahoma County jail on Monday on a complaint of murder.

On Monday, officers shot and killed a man along Interstate 35. About 10:25 a.m. Monday, officers were sent to the 1200 block of Interstate 35 where the man was reportedly shooting at vehicles traveling along the highway.

Officers gave commands for the man to drop the gun, which he did, but then reportedly picked it back up and faced officers, police reported. Two officers opened fire, fatally striking the man. His name has not been released.

The man's death is considered the 37th homicide in the city this year, which is the same number of killings reported in the city in the same time frame for 2018.

Police are also investigating another homicide during the four-day period but details on the killing were not available as of Tuesday afternoon.

As for the wave of homicides in such a short time, Mathews said the rate of violent crimes go up and down.

“It’s a roller coaster. It’s really hard to really predict and explain why we have so many at one point,” he said.