SENTINEL, Okla.– The Sentinel Police Chief is recovering after being shot four times early Thursday morning while investigating a bomb threat aimed at the city’s Head Start Child Development Center.
Friday afternoon we learned that bomb threat did not come from the home where the shooting took place.
With questions still unanswered, numerous Sentinel parents chose not to send their children to school Friday.
The Head Start opened, but closed after only six children showed up.
Mindy Cunningham was one of the parents who did not send her 5-year-old to the school.
“Mainly because of the unanswered questions. There are so many things we do not know as a community, and if he did not do it then somebody did. Somebody called in a bomb threat,” Cunningham said.
Around 4:00 a.m. Thursday morning, someone called 911 reporting a bomb had been placed at the Head Start.
“The person who called 911 used Dallas’s name. Law enforcement to my knowledge can’t confirm that the call came from his house,” Mayor Sam Dlugonski said.
Chief Louis Ross and Washita County deputies went to the home of Dallas Horton to investigate. Moments after entering, Chief Ross was shot three times in the chest and once in the arm. A bullet proof vest he borrowed just moments before is credited with saving his life.
Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation has not named the shooter, but says that agents believe the man was unaware it was officers who made entry.
“This is country, this ain’t Oklahoma City. You’re taught from a young age that if somebody comes into your house to shoot,” Sentinel resident Jimmy Rhoades said.
We tried to reach out to Horton Friday at his home, then his mother’s house. We were told to go away.
A fund has been set up for Chief Ross. You can donate at Southwest State Bank in Sentinel.
