OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – An Oklahoma City man described the horrific close encounter he had Tuesday night with a shooter who was allegedly on a shooting spree across the metro.
The shooting spree left multiple residents in fear. The shooter put multiple bullets into vehicles and homes at several locations around the metro. A woman was shot at one of them, and her brother told KFOR off camera that she is expected to be OK. Another man at one of the other locations described the scary events as he was shot at while in his work truck.
“I’m just happy to be alive,” said Denver Swearingin, a near-victim of the Tuesday night shooting spree.
The encounter left Swearingin in shock after his close call with the suspect.
“I have a wife and a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter,” he said. “I’m just so happy that they can still have me around.”
Oklahoma City police said it started around 8:15 p.m. Tuesday. A call came in about a person driving a white SUV and shooting at a home near NW 10th Street and Council Road.
“Shortly following that call, officers began receiving several different shooting calls from a vehicle matching the description of that vehicle up and down Council Road,” said Sgt. Dillon Quirk with the Oklahoma City Police Department.
Dispatch phones started to ring. A call came in just before 8:40 p.m. at NW 12th Street and Broadview Drive. Another call came in at 8:45 p.m. near NW 50th Street and Council Road. A third call also came in just after 8:50 p.m. near NW 73rd Street and Ann Arbor. A woman at the third location was shot in her arm through her car door. She was the most seriously injured. It was near 12th Street and Broadview Drive that Swearingin said he was heading north on Council Road to a plumbing job.
“I hear this loud pop and I thought maybe I ran something over,” he said. “A gunshot never crossed my mind.”
That was until a bullet hit his windshield.
“Glass powder blew me in the face,” Swearingin said. “My ears were ringing. I was kind of in shock.”
He said that next to him was a white SUV.
“My goal was just to get out of there as quick as possible and safely,” he said. “So, I just took a right turn onto a neighborhood and got away from the guy.”
Police said 34-year-old Kevin Nicholas was allegedly taking pop shots at vehicles and homes in at least the three known areas, including at Swearingin. He was luckily only left with damage to his work truck but was still fearful of what could have happened.
“The fear wasn’t there at first, but it’s starting to set in more as time goes on,” Swearingin said. “It could have been a lot worse.”
Nicholas was later spotted and arrested during a traffic stop after police got his tag number from a victim. There hasn’t been any word yet as to why he went on the alleged shooting spree.
