Something Stinks to High Heaven
Something isn't right about this Tulsa cop shooting. Horrible story, two cops gunned down, allegedly over a traffic stop for an expired paper tag. That in itself made me wonder why a man that wasn't on the run would escalate from a traffic ticket into a deadly shooting. The news reports quoted law enforcement in a very provocative manner with one quote being about the fugitive being dangerous and capable of shooting anyone and the others talking about the gunman allegedly standing over one of the cops and firing three times after he was down. If so, have a wood chipper fired up after a fair trial.
Three times execution style? But the stories said the gunman only fired three shots and one officer was wounded in the head and and body and the other was wounded three times in head, upper body, and lower body. Three shots, five wounds? And if you were standing over your victim like it was alleged, the shooter is either Sargent York that can inflict five wounds with three shots or an incredibly inept shooter. Or are they claiming that there were three shots that dropped both cops, then the suspect stood over one of the cops and fired three more times and only hit twice?
Something wasn't right about the story, too many inconsistencies, so we held off writing about things to see what developed. And sure enough, it wasn't long before the Tulsa County D.A. made an unusual request to the court that was rushed through ex parte.
But before we get to that, exactly what happened according to the authorities?
It was around 3:30 am near 21st and Memorial. One officer pulls over a vehicle driven by David Anthony Ware due to a paper tag that expired in April. A second cop responds as backup. Ware claimed not to have any ID on him but gave his name and they ran the info and the car plates. The original officer tells Ware to exit the car because the car is going to be towed, Ware allegedly refused to exit the car so a taser was used on the guy. Then pepper spray, then both cops are fighting to get the guy out of the car until Ware reaches under the seat and pulls out a gun and according to the stories fires three times at the two officers. At some point Ware stands over the back up cop, Johnson, and fires three more times. All this is in the police probable cause affidavit according to the news stories.
Ware supposedly told one of the cops that they were violating his rights by towing the car for taxes being owed. How many cars are towed over an expired tag?
It was the media's reporting on the story that became suspicious that put this on our radar. First was the execution style shooting yet the cop was only wounded. Next was a Tulsa World story that made much of the fact that Ware's first adult arrest was done by Johnson, the back up cop on the traffic stop. And the first arrest was a misdemeanor until Ware allegedly spit on Johnson.
Why was this strange? Because it reeked of the media attempting to generate a motive for the shooting. The story was on a fourteen year old drunk in public arrest of a drunken 18 year old pissing in a parking lot. The old arrest report was quoted as saying Ware made threats against Johnson. And 14 years later he carries them out?
The other odd thing is that Ware's criminal past is that of a low level junkie. He hung with a bad crowd, most likely feeding a drug habit. But he wasn't a hard core career criminal of the kind that we usually write about. Let's look at his record.
CF-2006-3257 public drunk, pissing in the parking lot, two counts of bodily fluid placed on an officer, deferred sentence and around $1500 in fines and fees, accelerated after another arrest in 2007. By 2010 the case was adjudicated and Ware was out of prison, paid a handful of payments then faced arrest warrants for non payment and the deferred sentence was accelerated and Ware was sent to prison to complete the sentence.
CF-2006-4559 concealing stolen property arrest in 2006 was dismissed. Strange, had a host of co defendants, perhaps blamed for something others did so the case was weak?
CF-2007-1114 Feb 2007 unauthorized use of vehicle, again dismissed by state. If the guy stole a car and was out on a deferred sentence, the case wouldn't be dismissed by the state.
CM-2008-3722 Domestic A & B, dismissed by the state. Okay, crazy woman calls the cops then refuses to file charges, well usually the state will file charges anyway. The third dismissal by the state in three years. Is this boy being picked on by local cops and weak cases filed?
CF-2008-3530 conviction 2nd degree burglary, Ware gives a guilty plea, sent to prison for three years served concurrently with his first 2006 deferred sentence for spitting on the cop. Ware isn't a repentant or reformed criminal as he infrequently sends in payments on his fines.
CF-2013-2955 Harboring a fugitive, dismissed by state. Another weak case to harass someone? That ought to be pretty clear, knowing the fugitive was on the run and concealing them knowingly. Why a dismissal?
CF-2014-6163 , several counts, first was drug possession, dismissed at the request of the state. Count 2, guilty plea for drug possession, count 3 paraphernalia possession in a car results in a guilty plea, and count 4, failure to signal, guilty plea. What? A traffic ticket offense included in felony counts? Count 5, driving under suspension, guilty plea. Count 6 failure to carry insurance verification form. Failure to carry the card and had insurance or didn't have insurance?
And again, another misdemeanor traffic offense filed with felony charges? This reeks of a pile on of charges.
CM-2016-1154 guilty plea, carrying a concealed weapon, guilty plea. And he was a felon to boot. Count 2, shoplifting charges. All misdemeanors.
CF-2016-1731 Larceny guilty plea, one year in jail
CM-2017-3240 Then charges of possession of burglary tools in 2017, guilty plea. Another count of drug paraphernalia, guilty plea. Another count of driving without a drivers license, a guilty plea. All misdemeanors
We are looking at a low level drug/drunk petty crime career. The dude isn't making a living doing it like so many we write about. Not a good man by any means but this isn't a cold blooded career criminal either.
Then in late June of this year, first degree murder charges, shooting with intent to kill, possession of a firearm after a felony, possession of drugs, and obstructing an officer.
Remember possession is now a misdemeanor as is obstructing. Why clutter up a murder one case with misdemeanors?
The media in particular always click bait us. But the media went to a lot of trouble to wind this story up hard, especially the Tulsa World story that elaborated ad nauseum on the prior offenses and that many of the ten arrests were dismissed by the state. And even more telling was this quote in the Tulsa World:
“These are emotional cases, and my job is to separate the facts from the emotion and approach the case in an objective fashion, as I would with any case,” Kunzweiler said. “He (Ware) enjoys the presumption of innocence like all people who are charged with crimes. We are prepared to put this case in front of a judge or a jury and let them make the determination about what the outcome ought to be.”
Well if that was the case, why lead with the execution style shooting accusations of standing over a down officer and firing three rounds into the guy point blank? That video from the body cams must be pretty damning. But then Kunzweiler and the ADA Kevin Gray go out of their way to prevent the release of the video. Why? That is public record, why lock it down? Haven't we seen video turned loose on every major police shooting case in the last few months?
Few organizations have been tougher on crime than the Sooner Tea Party. No one has written more stories about dirt bag career criminals getting velvet glove treatment for ten, even fifteen years before they get sent to prison. Yet several things about this horrific cop shooting just stink to high heaven.
Defense attorney Kevin Adams was appointed to defend Ware after one of the cops turned out to be banging one or more of the public defender attorneys and drinking with the rest of them we are told. Adams is no push over and has a history of fighting for justice and winning. One has to wonder why they appointed him to the case if they were going to try to silence the defense. And true to form, Adams filed a motion to release the video to the public and to gain access to the video to defend his client. How in the heck can you prevent a defense attorney from viewing the major evidence in a murder case, a death penalty case? Why would you even try to hide the video or silence an attorney you should know wouldn't be silenced?
Something stinks about this case. And we should wonder why the cops would tow a car with an expired paper tag. Under state law the tag has to be expired more than three months. April, May, June, well this happened in late June, not July. Actually, when I learned what the stop was about, I walked outside and looked at my tag. Expired in April, same as the shooter. With the Chinese virus the tag agencies didn't send out the tag notices this year and I simply forgot like many of us have done. A few years back going through Del City I get pulled over for expired tag, the officer asks me if I knew it, I didn't and told him I would drive two blocks back to the tag agency and get it renewed immediately and that was the end of it. No ticket, no towing of a car, just a cop being a decent human being over a minor infraction.
If I was a betting man I would put money on a bet that the cops wanted to tow the car so they could search his car. No probable cause for a search, but running the ID would have told them of Ward's record, and one of those two cops wanted to go on a fishing expedition. Once again if cops were trained to follow the law instead of being judge, jury, and executioner a lot of these cases wouldn't escalate from minor traffic stops to good men dying of gun shot wounds. And legislators need to figure out if collecting taxes is worth killing people over. Same with any law they pass; is it so important that we control everyone's actions and deeds that it is worth it when some poor sap finally has enough and snaps. This case reeks of a bad man with a troubled past, with a drug or booze addiction, picked on by cops and spending most of his adult life dealing with the criminal justice system and finally having enough. Kick a dog enough times and he might bite back.
I really want to see those videos. Something must be really wrong for the Tulsa D.A. Office to want to prevent them from being released and used in the defense. God help the surviving cop to survive and get back to his life. God help the family of the dead cop. But God help us all if we do not learn as a society to teach cops to de escalate situations and use some common sense and let God himself punish bad people if they think the court systems haven't done enough. And I also hope I am wrong, that every thing was done right like in that Wendy's drive through shooting and Ward is simply a complete dirt bag that deserves to die writhing on a gurney. But I don't think that is the case or I wouldn't have written this article.
