TAHLEQUAH, Okla. — Oklahoma Highway Patrol (OHP) is investigating a shooting involving U.S. Marshals in Tahlequah that appears to be deadly.
Law enforcement officers and detectives were in and out of the area for almost 8 hours.
While OHP and U.S. Marshals have not confirmed that anyone died, FOX23 did see the medical examiner on the scene.
For hours on Thursday, a house on Choctaw Street near South West Avenue in Tahlequah was surrounded by yellow crime scene tape and multiple law enforcement agencies.
U.S. Marshals said they were serving a federal felony warrant.
They said at some point shots were fired by both the suspect and law enforcement agents.
Jonathan Rader, the owner of Rader Computers, a business right across the street, heard some sort of commotion around 10 a.m. when he was opening his shop.
“When I heard the noise initially, I just thought it was someone knocking on the door. I went out and didn’t see and then I saw all the cops with their bulletproof vests on,” Rader said.
He said that now he thinks the noise he heard was gunshots and said things happened very fast.
“I wasn’t too scared, you know, if I would’ve known it was gunfire initially, I probably would’ve been more scared. But by the time I knew what was happening, it was already like a minute out of it. The cops had it pretty much surrounded and I thought they probably got it under control,” Rader said.
He said that he has always felt safe in Tahlequah so it was strange seeing so many law enforcement officers surrounding the house.
“I feel like it’s safer than a lot of places. I feel like probably it feels safer than Tulsa does to me, just because it’s kind of a small town, but then again there’s bad people everywhere,” Rader said.
The U.S. Marshals told FOX23 that OHP is investigating the case and said no law enforcement agents were hurt.