Man Charged With Murder Says Dead Suspect Fired Guns During OKC Shootout

Adrianna Iwasinski, News 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- A man charged with first-degree murder after a fatal shoot out with police claims he never fired a gun, and that he was forced to drive a stolen car.

An SUV owner called 911 Tuesday, May 31, and reported he'd spotted his stolen vehicle. Police responded to the call and began pursuing the SUV. As they were chasing it, the occupants inside began shooting at officers, and officers returned fire.

Oklahoma City police say 20-year-old Mandirous Navarr Kamisizian and 20-year-old Clay Howell were inside that stolen SUV. They aren't sure who was driving. The SUV crashed near N.W. 58th Street and Portland. Both Kamisizian and Howell jumped out and ran. Howell collapsed in a parking lot and later died from an apparent gunshot wound. A security guard caught Kamisizian and held him for police.

According to court papers, Kamisizian told police he was on his way to take something to his brother earlier that day when he saw a white male in a yellow SUV stranded on the side of N.W. 23rd Street and Ann Arbor.

Kamisizian says he pulled over to help the man, and gave him some gas which he had stored in a gas can inside the trunk of his car. Kamisizian says he was driving his sister's green Saturn but he left the car and rode with the man in the yellow SUV to a gas station at N.W. 23rd and Macarthur because the man he helped wanted to repay him for the gas.

Kamisizian says while at the gas station, the man who drove exited the yellow vehicle. That's when Kamisizian says he noticed another man in a gray pickup truck drive by twice and look at the yellow SUV. Kamisizian says the man he drove to the gas station with got back in the car, put a gun to his head and told him to drive.

Kamisizian says he drove for five minutes at speeds up to 120 mph as the gray truck chased him. He says he eventually noticed a police car had replaced the truck. Kamisizian says he didn't pull over because the man in the passenger seat had two guns, and one was pointed at his head.

Kamisizian claims that he drove straight on the street until he was rear ended by the police car and crashed into a tree. Court papers reveal he said the other man in the car exited the vehicle and began firing both guns at police officers. Kamisizian says got out of the car and ran. He says that's when he was confronted by a security guard in a parking lot and taken into custody.

Oklahoma City police officers say when they went to find the green Saturn Kamisizian claims he was driving, they could not locate it. When they spoke with the suspect's mother, she told them the car in question was in the driveway of her house and that Kamisizian had not driven it that day. She says someone had come to the house that morning to drive him to work.

Kamisizian has been charged with one-count of first-degree murder and three counts of shooting with intent to kill.

More: Details Emerge In OKC Police Pursuit, Shootout