Man Takes A Stand For His Neighborhood

A Tulsa man says a random act of violence will not force him to live in fear.  In fact, he hopes others will stand up to this type of crime, so we can all have safer neighborhoods.  The News On 6's crime reporter Lori Fullbright reports Todd is all about fighting back the right way.

He's not taking matters into his own hands and retaliating, although that was tempting at first.  He is calling every agency he can think of to deal with a group of thugs that intimidate neighbors, block traffic and generally make life miserable for those around them.

Todd and his family have lived in their neighborhood in the 5900 block of East Newton for a couple of years.  It's an area filled with older people and little kids.  Everything has been peaceful until a couple of months ago when new neighbors moved in.  Todd says a lot of teenage boys hang out with the new neighbors, making all kinds of trouble.

The night before Mother's Day, Todd was walking his dog when he saw problems once again brewing at the house and called police.

"There was probably 15-20 people, hollering, looked like two groups having a problem, calling each other all kinds of names. I could smell pot in the air. I don't know what else was going on, but I thought we should get a police car out here," said Todd.

On his way back home, several of the boys surrounded him, started calling him names and harassing him.  He says the only thing he said to them was, "I'm just walking the dog," and the next thing he knows, he's on the pavement.

"I remember being hit in the face, just a really hard blow.  Someone reaches around and hits you in the side of the face, didn't even see it coming," said Todd.

The sucker punch gave him a fat lip and fractured a bone in his right cheek.  The injury created a dent in his face.  Plus, he'd just had shoulder surgery six weeks earlier and fell on that shoulder, setting back his recovery at least a month.  Todd is now on a mission to do what he can legally to get these folks out of the neighborhood.

 He refuses to let thugs rule the block.

"Don't be afraid to face them.  Take them head on by whatever means necessary, but do it the right way.  Don't take justice into your own hands," said Todd.

Police are now patrolling the street more often.

Todd found out the trouble neighbors are living in a Tulsa Housing Authority home and they've begun an investigation.  He also called DHS about all the unsupervised children and the mother being intoxicated.  They are now also investigating.