Oklahoma police arrest pair suspected of killing two men

By Heide Brandes

OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - Police in Oklahoma arrested on Monday a man and a woman suspected of killing an off-duty policeman and the male suspect's father over the weekend in a family dispute related to a pickup truck.

Sapulpa Police Lieutenant Trey Pritchard, 46, was found dead in a suburban Oklahoma City motel room in Midwest City on Saturday night along with his cousin Jeffrey Grafton, also 46, according to police.

First degree murder warrants were issued for Grafton’s 22-year-old son, Jonathan Grafton, and the younger man's 21-year-old girlfriend, Daphne Mason, according to Midwest City police.

A citizen called police to report two people sleeping outside a convenience store in Enid, about 70 miles northwest of Oklahoma City, and the pair taken into custody without incident.

Jonathan Grafton had taken his father’s truck without permission and checked into the motel on Saturday, according to police.

The truck had a GPS system, which Pritchard and Jeffrey Grafton used to track it to the motel, according to police, who did not give details about how the men were killed.

"It's sad when anybody loses their life, especially if it's done by who we believe is a relative of one of the victims," Midwest City Police Chief Brandon Clabes said, adding the pickup truck has been recovered.

In a separate Oklahoma incident, a suspect accused of shooting a Tulsa officer in the leg during a pursuit on Sunday died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound as a special operations team prepared to arrest him.

Jeremie Kelly, 26, was pronounced dead at an area hospital on Sunday. The officer who was shot, Corporal Gene Watkins, was recovering from injuries that were not life-threatening, police said.

(Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Susan Heavey and Mohammad Zargham)