People in Freedom are in shock after two men were killed in an apparent double homicide
The crime unfolded Thursday morning in Northwest Oklahoma in the town of Freedom.
The crime unfolded Thursday morning in Northwest Oklahoma in the town of Freedom.
The crime unfolded Thursday morning in Northwest Oklahoma in the town of Freedom.
People in a small Oklahoma town are in shock after two men were killed in an apparent double homicide.
The crime unfolded Thursday morning in Northwest Oklahoma in the town of Freedom.
The town only has about 200 people living in it and everybody knows everybody.
“Freedom will never be the same again,” said Nancy Harger, who lives in the neighborhood where this happened.
Another neighbor, Angie Lee, heard the gunfire that rang out around 4 a.m.
“My first thought was, ‘That sounded like a gunshot,’ but this is Freedom, so I thought, ‘No, it couldn’t have been,’ and there were so many back-to-back,” Lee said.
Woods County deputies arrived to the home on Saddlehorn Drive and found one man killed and another struggling to stay alive.
“They were able to perform life-saving measures, but unfortunately, that victim passed away,” said Hunter McKee with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
| MORE INFORMATION | Small northwestern Oklahoma town of Freedom shaken by alleged double homicide
“For somebody to come into this town and do what they did, it frightens me,” said neighbor Melissa Burkhart.
Neighbors say the older man who lived next door was well-known and had lived in Freedom his whole life.
“I knew him all my life," Harger said.
“He also married me and my husband,” Burkhart said.
Harger told KOCO's Kilee Thomas that she would bake a birthday cake for her neighbor every year.
“Yes, I would always make him a German chocolate cake. That was his demand,” Harger said.
The town was put on hold as state agents searched for answers.
Freedom Public Schools canceled class for the day.
“We were able to locate and question multiple people who are still being questioned at this time,” McKee said.
Neighbors say the possible murder has stolen some of their innocence.
“Freedom is still Mayberry. It’s like living in the 80s when you can let your kids out,” Lee said.
A trustee for the town of Freedom, Jesse Schroeder, also spoke out about the impact this is having on the community, saying, “I’m hoping this isn’t something that has a strong imprint on the community because we’re known for so much more.”