INOLA — A crime spree that started in Tulsa Monday morning ended in Inola, resulting in the self-inflicted shooting death of a 20-year-old man.
Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton tells KRMG that a 20-year-old man kidnapped his 17-year-old girlfriend from a late-night Tulsa party, but she tried to escape, asking a bystander for help. The victim said her boyfriend, Holden Cothran, was angry with her after leaving a party. When they stopped at a gas station near 31st and Memorial, she jumped out of his truck and tried to get help. A man in a Jeep asked if she needed help, and she got into his vehicle. The man drove away with the victim, but Cothran followed them until they hit a dead end near 15th Street. The Good Samaritan was severely beaten by Cothran, and he then fled with the girl. He took his teenage victim on a high-speed chase that ended in Rogers County, near Inola.
Rogers County deputies received a call about an erratic driver, but they didn’t know the man had a death wish. When deputies turned on their lights, the man shot at the female victim four times.
“He tells his girlfriend at that time (that) if the police light him up, he’s going to kill her and him both. By the grace of God, she was not struck by any of those rounds,” Walton said.
Earlier in the incident, Cothran also shot multiple times into the Jeep, but no one was hit.
The sheriff said the suspect then shot himself, and the truck rolled several times. The girl was able to get out of the vehicle and was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
