Tulsa Police are busy investigating several recent homicides

Tulsa has had 9 killings in 10 days and police detectives are stretched thin. Despite that, they've already solved six of the nine cases. <br/><br/>As News on 6 crime reporter Lori Fullbright explains,

Wednesday, July 6th 2005, 2:40 pm

By: News On 6

Tulsa has had 9 killings in 10 days and police detectives are stretched thin. Despite that, they've already solved six of the nine cases.

As News on 6 crime reporter Lori Fullbright explains, working this many cases back-to-back, not only takes a physical toll on the officers but, an emotional one too.

The murder of Deontae Alexander kicked off 10 deadly days in Tulsa. He was a little boy who was shot in the head while sitting in his car seat.

Since then, it seems every time you turn on the news, we hear of another killing and another and, there's no real pattern. They have been shootings, stabbings and suffocations. They have been family disputes, drug related and at least one gang killing. And, with only six detectives to work them all, it's a big drain.

Tulsa Police Sgt Mike Huff: "The guys are literally working around the clock, giving up holidays, days off, giving up OT.â€ Homicide detectives, the fugitive squad and Special Operations team served two search warrants concerning this weekend's drive-by shooting, they arrested one man, but only for misdemeanor warrants at this time.

Tulsa has a homicide clearance rate of more than 70 percent, far better than many other cities this size and with far fewer detectives. "For example, Boston has 29 homicides with 20 unsolved and they have 21 detectives."

Tulsa has six detectives and in addition to working the murders, they also work all the non-fatal stabbings, shootings and beatings. And, sometimes, those cases are hard to leave at the office. "Some of these cases are draining emotionally, when a young child or an older person is involved. We are not robots."

Tulsa Police say killing sprees often happen in spurts and it's not unusual to see more of them in the summer, but, they certainly hope Tulsa's killing spree is over for now.

The open cases from the past 10 days include two Hispanic men found shot to death in an SUV on June 27th. Police believe that case is drug related.

The other one, is this weekend's drive-by shooting of Joseph Adetula, who was shot by men in a car while he was walking down the street.