Manhunt continues for suspect in shooting rampage that injured two officers, killed aunt and unclePublished: October 24, 2016 6:55 AM CDT
WELLSTON — The suspect who shot two Wellston police officers Sunday made a Facebook video afterward, saying, “This is more intense than what I thought it was going to be,” authorities said.
Bleeding from the shoot-out, the suspect fled in an officer's pickup, carjacked a getaway vehicle at a Lincoln County trailer park and then drove to the home of his aunt and uncle near Luther, authorities said. He brutally killed them both, almost severing his uncle's head, then stole their car, authorities said.
The last known sighting of the suspect was early Monday after he attempted to steal a motor home at a truck stop along Interstate 40 near Sayre in western Oklahoma.
The suspect in the crime spree was identified as Michael Dale Vance Jr., 38, of Chandler, who already was facing a child sexual abuse charge.
Photo - The scene at 17110 NE 206 in far northeast Oklahoma
County, where the bodies of Ronald and Valerie Wilkson were
discovered at their home late Sunday night. In this photo,
Oklahoma County sheriff's deputies talk on Monday to a man
who said he was a relative of the victims.
[Photo by Jim Beckel, The Oklahoman] Vance remained at large Monday while being sought by federal, state and county agencies. Rumors of his return east to Lincoln County circulated Monday afternoon.
"We just want to get this guy," said Charles Dougherty, the Lincoln County sheriff. "He's on a mission to hurt people. It would break my heart if he killed someone over a set of car keys."
Sunday, 6:30 p.m.The wounded officers were identified as Jim Hampton and Shawn Stewart.
Hampton, one of two full-time officers with the Wellston Police Department; Stewart, a certified reserve officer, and Alfred Hancock, a reserve in training, responded to a call about 6:30 p.m. Sunday in rural Lincoln County, along with a sheriff's deputy.
The lawmen approached a group of six to nine people who had guns displayed in the bed of a pickup. All went smoothly until the officers asked for IDs.
Wellston Police Chief Tim Estes said that's when Vance started shooting, first with a .22 and then with an AK-47-style weapon.
"This was a full-out gunfight. You don't see that often," said Estes, who likely would have been on the scene himself had he not been returning from a hunting trip in rural northwest Oklahoma.
Vance shot Hampton in the foot, said Estes. Vance also shot Stewart. The officers are recovering from wounds to "their lower extremities" and are said to be “doing well and will be recovering at home soon," authorities said.
Estes said officers couldn't return fire initially as Vance stood behind a group of people, including women. But Hampton pulled out his service weapon, a 9 mm, and shot Vance in the shoulder before Vance fled in a Wellston police pickup.
Two officers shot near Wellston; manhunt underway
Another man, identified as Tony Heavner, was apprehended a short time later, an investigator with the Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office reported in a court affidavit.
Authorities said Vance drove the police pickup into the adjacent neighborhood, a mobile home community called Bear Creek.
Johnathan Chouinard, 28, had just driven himself and his four-weeks pregnant wife Jamie, 27, home from dinner with her father. Chouinard recognized the police pickup as Hampton's and wondered what the officer might want. The pickup ripped ahead of the couple's car and skidded to a stop diagonally in front of it. Chouinard didn't recognize the man who got out of the pickup but briefly thought the man, who bled from the shoulder, was an undercover officer who had been in a shoot-out.
Authorities say the man was Vance.
He came up to the driver's side of the couple's 1996 Lincoln Towncar holding what looked like an AK-47 with a scope and laser, pointing it toward the ground. He told Chouinard "Get the f--- out," Chouinard recalled.
Photo - Johnathan Chouinard stands between two abrasions in a gravel road at Bear Creek mobile home
community located south of SH 66 west of Wellston on Monday. Chouinard said the marks were left when shooting
suspect Michael Vance stopped the stolen police vehicle he was driving abruptly in front of Chouinard and his wife,
Jamie, Sunday night, blocking their path as they were coming home from dinner with family. The dark spots on
the ground are a result of leaking engine fluids coming from the vehicle Vance was driving, Chouinard said.
[Photo by Jim Beckel, The Oklahoman] The couple got out and tried to take cover behind a mobile home; Chouinard saw a green laser on the white trailer as they moved away. The car stalled; the man asked Chouinard if it worked.
Chouinard assured the man his car worked and told him to turn the key again.
On the way out, Chouinard said, the man in the car shot two times at a trailer, injuring a woman inside.
Sheriff Dougherty said he thought Vance shot at the mobile home on the way into the community. Either way, the bullet hit an item and shrapnel injured a woman at the property. She refused medical treatment.
Looking back, Chouinard said he is thankful he and his wife got away.
"We are blessed," he said.
9:30 p.m.Reports came in that the same Lincoln Towncar stolen from the mobile home community was at a rural Luther residence, which prompted Oklahoma City police to send a helicopter over the home at 17110 NE 206, the residence of Vance's uncle. From the air, authorities spotted a body, according to court documents.
Law enforcement sent a bomb robot onto the property and police confirmed a man there was dead.
Authorities found a second dead victim inside, identifying the victims as Vance's aunt and uncle, Valerie Kay Wilkson, 54, and Ronald Everett Wilkson, 55, Oklahoma County sheriff's office spokesman Mark Opgrande said.
Michael Dale Vance Jr. wanted poster
According to the affidavit, Ronald Wilkson was shot once with ammunition traditionally fired from an AK-47 style rifle. Valerie Wilkson suffered multiple stab wounds, the investigator reported. Both victims reportedly had large cuts to their necks.
"Wounds were found on R. Wilkson consistent with an attempt to sever his head," according to the affidavit. "V. Wilkson, too, had a large cut on the side of her neck similar to the wound witnessed on R. Wilkson."
The investigator also reported that based on a large cut to Valerie Wilkson's shoulder, it appeared "Vance was trying to remove V. Wilkson's arm."
Authorities reported Vance stole from the residence a gray or silver 2007 Mitsubishi Eclipse, with Oklahoma license plate 943 LQQ, and left in an unknown direction.
A man, who only identified himself as a son of the victims, told The Oklahoman outside of their home on Monday "all we know is our parents were killed … we've got people still coming in from out of town,” and refused further comment.
Monday, 2:38 a.m.At 2:38 a.m. Monday, the Sayre Police Department and Beckham County deputies responded to reports of a shooting at a gas station off Interstate 40. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said in a news release that a man drove into the parking lot of the Flying J truck stop near Sayre and attempted to steal a motor home. Authorities reported the suspect shot the vehicle's owner twice in the leg during the altercation but was unable to gain access to the motor home.
The victim, Randy Frost, 47, was taken to a hospital before being transported to an Oklahoma City hospital.
According to the Beckham County sheriff's office, Vance, who is still considered to be armed, was last seen driving westbound on Interstate 40 from the gas station in the 2007 Mitsubishi Eclipse.
Suspected slayer posts to FacebookIn a video obtained from Vance's Facebook account by an Oklahoma City television station, Vance can be seen just after the shooting inside the Wellston officer's patrol vehicle, saying “it hurts, let me tell you it hurts, it sucks,” referring to being wounded in the shoot-out with officers.
“This is more intense than what I thought it was going to be, to say the least. … I'm about to steal another car, like right now, this ... is going to be intense. Watch this people,” Vance says as the video fades to black.
A second video, shot inside a different vehicle, shows Vance point the camera to a gun and say “Look, this is real, see that's a … gun, that's the real deal, this … ain't a joke, this ain't a prank, I'm going live if you want to know what's up next, stay tuned to your local news.”
Vance can be heard talking about being set up and thanking an unknown person for their support, and that “I know we didn't get the vest, but it will be all right.”
The video ends with Vance describing being shot as painful and ignoring a phone call, saying “I love you sis, I'm not answering the phone, it's too late now.”
Vance was charged in July in Lincoln County with child sexual abuse, after a former felony conviction. He is accused in the sexual abuse charge of an offense against a 15-year-old girl at a house in Chandler in July. He told police he did not do anything because he was asleep, according to a court affidavit. The prior conviction is a bogus check offense from 2001.
He is described as 5 foot, 11 inches tall, weighing about 210 pounds and has “a medical condition and may try to spread disease,” according to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.
In a statement released Monday morning, Opgrande said Vance may have returned to the Oklahoma City or Lincoln County area and "others may be in danger." He said Vance might attempt to carjack or steal another vehicle.
Anyone with information on Vance's whereabouts is asked to not approach him and should call 911.
Heavner had not been charged and it was unclear if he was still being held Monday evening.
Check NewsOK.com for updates.++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
UPDATE: Blue alert issued, hunt for man who killed two relatives, shot Wellston officers continuesFROM STAFF REPORTS Published: October 25, 2016 6:13 AM CDT
WELLSTON — A Blue Alert has been issued in a statewide search for a man who shot two Wellston police officers and then killed two of his relatives on Sunday.
Technically, the state's Blue Alert law does not take effect until Nov. 1, but an alert has been issued statewide a bit early, said Gene Thaxton, Department of Public Safety director of law enforcement telecommunications.
Michael Dale Vance Jr., 38, of Chandler, who was facing a child sexual abuse charge, was still at large Tuesday morning. He is wanted in the deaths of his aunt and uncle, Valerie Kay Wilkson, 54, and Ronald Everett Wilkson, 55, who were found dead Sunday night at 17100 NE 206 in Oklahoma County.
The killings happened about three hours after Wellston officers Jim Hampton and Shawn Stewart were wounded in a shootout in Lincoln County.
The Blue Alert, enacted this year, warns law enforcement and the public when someone is wanted in a case involving an assault on a law enforcement officer. Electronic signs along state roadways are alerting the public about the manhunt for Vance.
"We wanted to put something out on this guy," Thaxton said.
The alert for Vance on electronic billboards along roadways is needed, whether it is technically the state's first Blue Alert or not, Thaxton said.
"This is specifically what it (Blue Alert) is for, when we have a police officer shot or killed and we have not apprehended the suspect," Thaxton said.
Vance, who was wounded in the shootout, took an officer's pickup, carjacked a getaway vehicle at a Lincoln County trailer park and then drove to the home of his aunt and uncle near Luther, authorities said. He brutally killed them both, almost severing his uncle's head, then stole their car, authorities said.
Manhunt continues for suspect in shooting rampage that injured two officers, killed aunt and uncle
Vance was sighted early Monday after he attempted to steal a motor home at a truck stop on Interstate 40 near Sayre in western Oklahoma.
The wounded Wellston officers are recovering.
Hampton, one of two full-time officers with the Wellston Police Department; Stewart, a certified reserve officer, and Alfred Hancock, a reserve officer in training, responded to a call about 6:30 p.m. Sunday in rural Lincoln County, along with a sheriff's deputy.
The lawmen approached a group of six to nine people who had guns displayed in the bed of a pickup. When officers asked for IDs, Vance, armed with a .22 caliber gun and an AK-47 style assault rifle, started shooting.
According to the Beckham County sheriff's office, Vance, who is still considered to be armed, was last seen driving west on Interstate 40 from the gas station in a 2007 Mitsubishi Eclipse.
Manhunt continues for suspect in shooting rampage that injured two officers, killed aunt and uncle (Published on Oct. 23, 2016)