Tulsa shooting victims' families speak up about killings

BY AMANDA BLAND World Staff Writer
Thursday, April 12, 2012
12/28/12 at 8:58 AM

The night Desera Allen's son was shot and killed she awoke at 2 a.m. and couldn't fall back asleep.

"I didn't know what was going on," she said, but she couldn't shake the feeling of unrest.

Hours later, another one of her children was pacing in front of her, struggling to find the words to tell her William, or T-bone as his mother called him, was dead.

In an instant, she was out the door, still wearing her housecoat, on her way to the site where 31-year-old William Allen's body was found.

He was pronounced dead at the scene on the lawn of Jack's Memory Chapel, 801 E. 36th St. North, around 8:30 a.m. Friday. Police believe he was likely shot hours earlier, between 1 and 2 a.m.

"He was a happy person," Desera Allen said, looking at the pictures of William's childhood spread before her. "He made the best out of every situation."

William Allen moved to Tulsa from Hattiesburg, Miss., four years ago, she said. His new friends in Tulsa nicknamed him Sip.

"He was a character," and always tried to make her laugh, his mother said.

She used to call him to come play dominoes with her, and he'd happily oblige. Family was important to him.

He loved his brother and two sisters. He also had a 14-year-old daughter.

Desera Allen says she feels weak in light of her son's death and the commotion that followed.

Jake England, 19, was arrested Sunday along with Alvin Watts, 33, after authorities linked them to early morning shootings in north Tulsa that left three dead and injured two.

They are accused of fatally shooting Allen, Dannaer Fields, 49, and Bobby Clark, 54, and of wounding David Hall, 46, and Deon Tucker, 44, within a 3-square-mile area of north Tulsa.

Fields' cousin says she's "pissed off."

Fields was known as Donna, or Little Donna, to cousin Donna Capehart.

Capehart grew up in Tulsa but lives in Dallas.

She said she often tells people in Dallas how great Tulsa is and was surprised to hear of the circumstances surrounding her cousin's death.

"Really, it's hard to believe," she said.

Capehart believes her cousin was targeted because she was black, she said.

"It's like we're going back" in time, she said referencing the shooting spree in which her cousin died and the shooting death of Trayvon Martin in Florida earlier this year.

Fields' friendly disposition made her death harder for Capeheart to understand, she said.

"Donna was the sweetest person you ever wanted to meet," Capeheart said.

Fields, like William Allen, was a few blocks from home when she was shot. She'd been playing dominoes at a friend's house.

"She had this laugh. You could be in a crowded room and hear that laugh and know it was Donna."

Services for Fields will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at Crown Hill Chapel, 4301 E. 66th Street North.

Allen's funeral services are pending with Jack's Memory Chapel.

Check back at tulsaworld.com for more updates. Find complete coverage at tulsaworld.com/shootings.

Original Print Headline: Families of slain victims speak up

Amanda Bland 918-581-8413
amanda.bland@tulsaworld.com

Associated Images:

William Allen (left), Dannaer Fields and Bobby Clark: Allen, one of three victims found on Friday, was pronounced dead at the scene on the lawn of Jack's Memory Chapel on East 36th Street North. His mother, Desera Allen, said, "He was a happy person." The photo of Dannaer Fields, also known as Donna, was provided by the family. A cousin of Fields, Donna Capehart, said she believes her cousin was targeted because she was black.

Desera Allen, the mother of William Allen, one of the north Tulsa shooting victims, speaks about her son before attending the first NAACP meeting since the Good Friday shootings. Behind her is vice president of the Tulsa NAACP, Alvin Muhammad. JAMES GIBBARD/Tulsa World