Pubdate: Thu, 27 Mar 2014
Source: Oklahoman, The (OK)
Copyright: 2014 The Oklahoma Publishing Co.
Contact: http://www.newsok.com/voices/guidelines
Website: http://newsok.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/318
Author: Dylan Goforth
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/raids.htm (Drug Raids)

MAN SHOT BY TULSA OFFICER APPARENTLY UNARMED

TULSA - A Tulsa man who was fatally shot by police serving a search 
warrant Tuesday apparently was unarmed, police said Wednesday.

The Tulsa Police Department identified the man who was shot as 
27year-old DeAndre Lloyd Starks, and the officer as Sgt. Mark 
Wollmershauser Jr., 32.

Wollmershauser, who has been on the police force nine years, was 
placed on routine paid administrative leave after the shooting.

Starks was one of five people inside the home at 239 E Young St. when 
police gang and narcotics officers entered to serve a drug-related 
search warrant at 5:22 p.m. Tuesday, according to a news release from 
Sgt. Dave Walker.

No gun was found in the residence, but police did find a "substantial 
amount of illegal dangerous drugs inside the house and on Starks," 
according to the release. However, officer Leland Ashley said 
Wednesday that no one from the residence has been arrested.

Walker said police ordered everyone inside the home to get on the 
floor. One man attempted to jump out a window and was apprehended by 
officers there. Starks, who was in a bedroom, "failed to comply with 
officers," according to Walker.

The news release states that Starks was "making movements with his 
body and hands that officers deemed a threat to them."

Wollmershauser fired one shot at 5:23 p.m., Ashley said. Starks was 
taken to St. John Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 
6:11 p.m., police said.

People identifying themselves as Starks' friends and family spoke 
briefly at the scene Tuesday before they were officially notified 
that he was the person who had been shot. They said only that Starks 
was a "good kid" who they believed happened to be in the wrong place 
at the wrong time.

Tulsa World archives show that Wollmershauser also was involved in a 
fatal officer-involved shooting three years ago, having killed Marvin 
Dion Alexander on March 16, 2011.

Alexander, 32, had fought with a U.S. marshal who was attempting, 
along with Tulsa police officers, to conduct a "pedestrian check," 
and then sprinted through the Fairmont Terrace apartment complex, 
police said. Wollmershauser shot Alexander as the man was reaching 
for something, and police said a gun was found at the scene.

Court records show that Starks pleaded guilty in 2007 to possession 
of marijuana with intent to distribute, for which he received a 
five-year deferred sentence.

He was charged twice in 2009 with drug offenses, both of which were 
dismissed at the request of prosecutors, court records show.

In another shooting, officer Daniel Madewell killed Juan Antonio 
Gonzalez, 31, on Feb. 16, 2013, at the Coppermill Apartments, 7110 S. 
Granite Ave.

Gonzalez was shot while on a second-floor balcony by officers who 
said they believed he was pointing a rifle. It was later determined 
that the rifle was a BB gun.

Madewell was cleared and returned to work, Ashley said.

Tulsa Police Department data shows 38 uses of deadly force since 
2008. Each case the Tulsa County district attorney's office has ruled 
on has been deemed justified, although a 2009 case was ruled to be 
out of police department policy.

Tulsa police used deadly force eight times in 2013, but only one of 
those incidents resulted in a death.

One man, Christopher Teter of Tulsa, killed himself in his vehicle 
after leading police on a chase Dec. 4.

Police said Teter, 20, fired at officers while leading them in the 
pursuit, then shot himself as they closed in on him after he wrecked 
his car near the Tulsa Promenade mall.

Police had returned fire at him, but it was determined that his own 
bullet had killed him.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom