Slaton Police Chief Steven Wheeler gave more of an insight on what happened at Tuesday's deadly shooting. Wheeler said it began with a compliant phoned in by a Slaton Resident around 8.a.m. Tuesday.
"We received a compliant that a black male had gone to a certain residence and was asking questions," Wheeler said. "He said he had been looking for a girl he had been talking too."
Wheeler said the description of the suspect was a black male driving a white Honda Accord. That led to 21-year old Sampson Blake Oguntope who was seen at a local motel by the person who made the initial complaint.
"She had spotted the person pulling into the Knights Inn," he said.
Wheeler said later that morning Oguntope was using the internet at the motel. Officers asked him questions from the compliant made by the Slaton resident. Police said he didn't act suspicious and they let him go, not knowing within a few hours he would be their main person of interest.
"Sampson told the officers he was just looking for a girl and he was trying to find her," he said.
Just before noon Tuesday police then responded to a 911 phone call. Chief Wheeler said he arrived at a home where he found 89-year-old Faye Gray shot dead inside.
"All we knew is we had a deceased person in this house, that appeared to have a gunshot wound," he said. "And we had a lady down the street that had blood all over her."
That victim is Gray's 21-year-old care giver. Her name is not being released. Wheeler said she immediately gave police the same description matching Oguntope.
"The female victim had stated it was black male driving a white car," he said.
A manhunt ensued, which included Lubbock County Sheriff Deputies, a DPS helicopter, and the Sheriff's SWAT team. About 3 p.m. Texas Tech police reported the suspect vehicle was on campus, but couldn't be located.
Flash forward five hours the LPD SWAT team found Oguntope at his residence on East Marshall. He was arrested along with his two roommates.
"We are still processing the scene on Crosby Street, as well as waiting on autopsy report," he said.
Those roommates Philip Michael Murphy and Charles Henry Burgess were charged with interfering with officers. They are no longer jailed. Oguntope is being held in the Lubbock County Detention Center on a $5 million bond for the murder of Gray.
