Bartlesville Police: Woman Fired At Officers With Pellet Gun

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation is investigating after police said a Bartlesville officer shot and killed a woman while they were serving a search warrant.

1/18/2018 Related Story: Bartlesville Woman, 72, Dies After Police Say She Wounded Two Officers

The suspect is now at the Washington County Jail after Bartlesville Police served a search warrant at his home Wednesday night. 

They said they got inside and the suspect's mother shot two officers with a pellet gun, but at the time, the officers believed it was a real gun.

“A B.B. gun can look just like a center fire pistol from a distance,” said owner of Defient Arms Jake Schellack. 

Schellack said pellet guns can cause a lot of damage because the speed of the pellet can be just as fast as a real bullet. 

“It's shooting that B.B. out at 450/480 feet per second so when you look at some rifle rounds and handgun rounds are just right at 1000 feet per second so that's just plenty fast enough to injure somebody,” Schellack said.  

Wednesday night, Bartlesville Police officers were serving a search warrant to Michael Livingston after they found marijuana during a traffic stop earlier in the day. 

When they got into the home, officers said they started hearing a popping noise and two of the officers were hit with a projectile. 

"If you're shot in the face with something like that, you're not going to know immediately that it's a pellet gun," said Bartlesville Police Department Captain Jay Hastings.

Captain Hastings said officers returned fire, hitting and killing 72-year-old Geraldine Townsend who later died at the hospital. 

He said it's very difficult to tell the difference between pellet guns and real firearms. 

"They appear to be real firearms when you first see them," Hastings said.  

“For a long time what you would see is the orange tips on the ends of the barrels to show that they are not real guns, but B.B. guns and air rifles are still real guns,” Schellack said.   

"If an officer encounters somebody that has something like that in their hand, they're gonna treat it like it's a real gun," Hastings said. 

Livingston was in court Thursday for his initial appearance and the officer who shot Livingston's mother is on paid leave. 

The District Attorney is working to determine if this shooting was justified.