Tulsa shooting connection 'bone chilling' for Muskogee, mayor says
MUSKOGEE — Residents here, already reeling from recent gun violence, received "bone-chilling" news this week the man police identified as the mass shooter of a Tulsa hospital might have been one of their neighbors.
Muskogee Mayor Marlon Coleman said he lives mere feet away from the home police searched Wednesday in connection to the shooter, Michael Louis.
Coleman said he waved at Louis earlier this week.
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"There are no words to describe what you feel when you realize someone who lived less than 200 feet away, was responsible for this type of action," Coleman said. "It is bone chilling."
Louis, of Muskogee, killed three members of the Saint Francis Health System and an orthopedic center visitor before taking his own life, police said Thursday.
Officers in the city 50 miles southeast of Tulsa arrived Wednesday evening at a home in Muskogee's Park Place neighborhood. The Muskogee Police Department said Tulsa police notified the agency that Louis, 45, could have planted a bomb at the residence.
Investigators with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol didn't find an explosive device, Muskogee police said.
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Coleman said he wasn't home at the time of the bomb scare. He and other neighbors said they are unsure whether Louis was a permanent resident or a visitor at the home.
Louis listed the Park Place North home as his address in 2014, according to voter registration records, and last voted in 2020.
Neighbors say officers warned them about 6 p.m. to shelter in place. Police ordered the home's residents, a woman and her daughter, to exit the house, neighbors said.
A resident of the searched home declined to comment to The Oklahoman on Thursday.
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Neighborhood streets remained blocked while officers processed the scene until about 10 p.m., neighbors said.
Those who live there said the neighborhood is typically a quiet area where visits from local police are rare. Neighbors said they don't recall ever seeing officers at the home in question before.
This is the second shooting in the past week with connections to Muskogee.
Gunfire at a Memorial Day event in nearby Taft left 39-year-old Sharika Bowler dead and eight people injured early Sunday. Shots broke out after an argument in the town 7 miles from Muskogee, police said.
A recent school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that took the lives of 19 children and two teachers paints a horrific backdrop for the attacks in Oklahoma.
Coleman called for congressional action to address gun violence. He wouldn't say what type of legislation is necessary, but elected officials "must do something or step aside and let someone else do your job."
"Those who desire to hold office have to do something to re-instill confidence in Americans that it's OK to go to the hospital and not be worried," Coleman said. "Mayors across Oklahoma and abroad need support from the U.S. Congress by doing something to address this problem."
Coleman said he would ask the Muskogee City Council to allocate extra resources to active shooter trainings.
He urged Muskogee residents to seek mental health support and to foster a greater sense of community — to get to know their neighbors beyond a simple wave.
"Perhaps if we knew our neighbors and felt their pains and understood their problems, we could be the vessel or the vehicle to proactively cure what might be the inevitable," Coleman said.
Tulsa police said Louis had back surgery May 19 and targeted the doctor who performed the operation. Louis reportedly complained of ongoing back pain for several days after the surgery.
Police said he purchased an AR-15 style rifle from a Tulsa gun store at 2 p.m. Wednesday before attacking the second floor of the Natalie Building on the Saint Francis hospital campus. Officers said Louis also was armed with a handgun bought from a Muskogee pawn shop.
Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin identified the four victims Thursday as Dr. Preston Phillips, Dr. Stephanie Husen, receptionist Amanda Glenn and William Love, who was accompanying a patient.
A letter found on Louis' body “made it clear that he came in with the intent to kill Dr. Phillips and anyone who got in his way,” Franklin said.
Reporter Nuria Martinez-Keel covers K-12 and higher education throughout the state of Oklahoma. Have a story idea for Nuria? She can be reached at nmartinez-keel@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @NuriaMKeel. Support Nuria’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Tulsa shooting connection 'bone chilling' for Muskogee, mayor says
