Arrests Made In Home Invasion Attack

A couple is recovering after a vicious home invasion attack. It happened Monday morning just south of Okmulgee. News On 6 crime reporter Lori Fullbright reports, according to police, the victims are

Tuesday, September 18th 2007, 5:40 pm

By: News On 6

A couple is recovering after a vicious home invasion attack. It happened Monday morning just south of Okmulgee. News On 6 crime reporter Lori Fullbright reports, according to police, the victims are in their mid-50s and were held hostage and terrorized for two hours.

Deputies say four men, carrying guns and wearing scarves over their faces, broke into a rural Okmulgee home early Monday morning. For two hours deputies say the suspects hauled out guns, televisions, computers, jewelry and money.

"They separated the husband and wife, moved the wife into a bedroom where they keep their grandchildren, when they're there and victimized this poor woman, very vicious act," said Okmulgee County Sheriffâ€™s Department Investigator James Poulin.

The womanâ€™s husband faked a heart attack and the suspects became concerned enough to give him water and a Tylenol. Then, they locked the couple in a bathroom, took all the phones from the house and left.

Great police work and help from the community led to the arrests of four suspects in the case, 21-year-old Zachery Harvell, 20-year-old Daniel Wind, 19-year-old Dustin Marris and 17-year-old Justin Burgess. Harvell and Wind were caught during a car stop in Kansas, Marris and Burgess were arrested locally.

According to officials, one of them confessed, saying this crime was about money and they thought the victims had some.

"This was a very, very vicious act. In my 13-and-a-half years in law enforcement, this is very vicious and we're just thankful they weren't executed," Poulin said.

Neighbors in the usually quiet, rural area are now on edge.

"I thought we was in a real safe neighborhood. It's a bad deal,â€ said neighbor Larry Andrews. â€œWe have a lot of elderly people in our neighborhood."

Another resident in the area has asked her parents to stay with her and her child for a few days.

"She's a sound sleeper. It could've happened to her just as easily. She was petrified," said the residentâ€™s mother Carol Selvidge.

Deputies say the victims are going to need help healing from such an unthinkable crime.

Meanwhile, one of suspects arrested in Mondayâ€™s home invasion, 17-year-old Justin Burgess, is the same young man who was shot ten times last June.

Justin Burgess told police he went to a home to protect a friend who claimed her father was assaulting her. That's when he fought with the girl's dad, who shot Justin several times. The father has not been charged in the shooting. Justin's father told The News On 6 on Tuesday that he is angry his son has now been arrested, when the man who shot him still has not.

Watch the video: Four Arrested In Home Invasion Attack

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