Family Mourning Man Shot By Off-Duty Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper

Some family members drove from as far as Austin, Texas, to say their goodbyes to Michael Troy Swatosh.

Saturday, September 7th 2013, 12:09 am

By: News On 6


The family of a man shot and killed at a Tulsa motel by an off-duty trooper is in mourning.

Funeral services for the 25-year-old are this weekend and his loved ones are trying to find answers.

Some family members drove from as far as Austin, Texas, to say their goodbyes to Michael Troy Swatosh.

"To see him in there laying down [in the casket] it's not supposed to be this way," brother Rovert Trevino said.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol said Swotosh was killed by off-duty trooper Sheldon Robinson in the early-morning hours of Sept. 1. The shooting took place at a motel on Admiral and Sheridan Roads.

"Everybody's broken," Trevino said. "Everybody has a piece of them missing."

Lots of questions are still waiting to be answered. Right now, OHP is investigating the shooting.

The agency says the trooper "felt threatened" after seeing Swatosh and another man and fired at them.

Swatosh died and the second man got away, according to OHP.

Swatosh was a father of two girls.

"His girls [were] his life," sister-in-law Melissa Trevino said. "Any chance he got with his girls, anytime he could spend with his girls, he took that chance and that opportunity."

"She looks just like her daddy," Robert Trevino said. "She knows how much her daddy loved her."

Swatosh's older brother said he will be remembered as a loving member of their family.

"He wasn't that kind of person," he said. "He was a loving, caring, gentle father, brother, son, loved one, friend. He was here to make everybody's life better."

His family is struggling to understand his death.

"The memory that you should have of him is that he was a very loving father -- very caring sibling," Melissa Trevino said. "He cared about his family a lot."

Swatosh's funeral is Saturday in Broken Arrow.

Robinson is on administrative leave during the investigation.

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