Federal Agents Assist In Search For Muskogee Arrowhead Mall Shooting Suspects

NewsOn6.com

MUSKOGEE, OK -- Muskogee Police continue to look for three suspects in connection to a fatal shooting at Arrowhead Mall in downtown Muskogee.

One person is dead and five others were injured following the shooting that happened at about 4 p.m. Saturday at the mall in downtown Muskogee. 

Three of those five have been released from a Muskogee hospital.

"Officers are currently following several leads, and investigators are reviewing evidence," said Corporal Pedro Zardeneta of the Muskogee Police Department in a new release Sunday. They have expanded the search to include federal agencies as well.

"Currently we are still working with the ATF, U.S. Marshals Service, Oklahoma Highway Patrol, and Muskogee County Sheriff's office in a team effort to apprehend the suspects," Zardeneta said.

Officers are searching for 20-year-old Daniel Jermaine Anderson, 16-year-old Michael Mayberry and 17-year-old Anton Nelson. Anderson served a short sentence in the Oklahoma Department of Corrections for possession of a controlled substance in 2008-09. Muskogee police issued a warrant for Mayberry's arrest earlier in the week on an unrelated case.

Police don't have a motive and say they don't know how many of the three men opened fire.

In addition, Zardeneta says 40 Muskogee police officers are looking for the suspects and more eyewitnesses are coming forward.

"They might be out of the county. This is Muskogee, you can be in Fort Smith in less than an hour. They could be out of the state," said Zardeneta.

If anyone has any information they are asked to call the Muskogee Police Department at 918-680-8000 or Muskogee Crime Stoppers at 918-682-COPS.

Police have identified the fatality as 17-year-old Jarrod Reed. Police say Reed knew the shooters.

Mall shopper Harold Anderson says he saw Reed fighting for his life.

"I tried to put some towels on him, but the police wouldn't let us, and they left him there for like 10 minutes on the ground. They wouldn't let us apply no pressure to his wounds," said Anderson.

Officers said an innocent bystander was also shot, a 13-year-old girl who was transferred to St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa. Four others were injured, but it is unknown if they were hit by gunfire.

According to Muskogee Regional Medical Center spokesperson Laurie Hoog, Reed was dead when he was brought to the hospital on Saturday. Two others were treated and released, and the fourth person transported to MRMC is in stable condition.

Cpl. Zardeneta said shots were fired inside the southeast section of the mall. Police say the mall was crowded with visitors who were attending the annual Azalea Festival.

"I didn't know which way the bullets were flying or what was going on," said Wynter Wright, who was at the mall at the time of the shooting.

Following the shooting, officers said the mall was locked down. Shoppers were told to stay where they were and then slowly filtered through police checkpoints. Investigators interviewed each person before letting them leave the mall.

Officers closed the parking lot and wouldn't allow anyone close to the mall. 

The mall reopened Monday morning.

Zardeneta said witnesses thought a gunfight was underway.

Tonya Pierce said her daughter and two friends were waiting for a ride home when shots rang out. Her daughter told her that "people started screaming" and a group of men started shooting, Pierce said. "They thought they were trying to shoot someone else." 

In a tearful reunion outside the mall, Pierce alternated between hugging her daughter and holding her face in her hands.

Sydnee Huber, 15, of Muskogee, a clerk at the Twisted Joe's Pretzel Stand in the mall, sent a text message to her father about 4:15 p.m. saying she had heard shots at the mall, and that the mall had been locked down. Her parents, Brian and Carrie Huber, left a local chili cook-off that was part of the Azalea Festival activities and traveled to the downtown mall, which had been packed with festival goers. 

Hope Bridges, manager of Kat Daddy's Bar and Grill in the mall, said merchants had looked forward to Saturday's festival drawing more business. She said she heard no shots, but heard screams that grew to a crescendo as shoppers fled the shopping center. 

She said she called 911 and was told to evacuate her restaurant. Diners in the nearly full restaurant were enjoying the $6.99 barbecued ribs when Bridges and the service staff told them to leave. 

"It was a great business day for the mall. Everyone was happy, everybody was in town," Bridges said. "It was something the mall had been looking forward to."

Immediately after the shooting:

• One person was transported in life threatening condition to Muskogee Regional Medical Center.
• Two people were transported in non-life threatening condition to Muskogee Regional Medical Center.
• One person was transported in non-life threatening condition to Muskogee Community Hospital.
• One person was flown to Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa in life threatening condition.
• Another person was transported by private vehicle in non-life threatening condition to another hospital.

Police are trying to determine if there are any other injuries.

OHP was called to assist with a fight that broke out at one of the hospitals following the shooting.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.