Alfred Douglas Hill. Courtesy.
In many ways, the shooting of Alfred Douglas Hill is a familiar story.
The 34-year-old Hill was a passenger in a car last month when an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper pulled the vehicle over near U.S. Highway 169 and Admiral Boulevard in Tulsa.
Hill, according to an OHP spokesman, told the vehicle’s driver he had a gun and that he was going to flee. Hill had a previous felony on his record and just having a gun in his possession could send him back to prison for years.
He did flee, apparently. Not far from where the vehicle was stopped, shots were fired and Hill was shot multiple times. Troopers said the ex-con pulled a gun and fired at them, so they fired back. Similar circumstances have allegedly played out in Oklahoma more than a dozen times this year.
Most of the story appeared in the media the following day. Paul Timmons, an OHP spokesman, told the Tulsa World that Hill had survived the shooting but was taken to a Tulsa hospital. Hill’s family members told Tulsa television station NewsOn6 they were denied access to the hospital at first, but later learned he had been shot several times. Witnesses, they said, described Hill as surrendering, arms in the air, when shot.
Despite allegedly shooting a firearm at pursuing troopers, Hill, who was booked into the Tulsa County Jail after leaving the hospital eight days following the shooting, has never been charged with a crime.
Hill spent a little more than two days in jail before being released on a $75,000 bond.
More than six weeks later, that’s where the story still stands.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol investigators have not forwarded their investigation into Hill’s criminal case or the separate officer-involved shooting case (agencies routinely place officers involved in shootings on paid leave while waiting for the local district attorney to rule on the shooting) to the DA’s office.
And the Assistant District Attorney assigned the case said he doesn’t really know what’s going on.
“Yeah I don’t know what’s happening,” ADA Kevin Keller told The Frontier. “It’s weird.”
Charges against those shot by police are not rare
Shootings by Oklahoma law enforcement are not rare, happening at a rate of about five or six shootings per month. Hill was the 34th person to be shot by Oklahoma law enforcement in 2018.
Records show at least 38 people have been shot by Oklahoma authorities this year, and weapons — like a firearm or knife — have allegedly been wielded against officers in about half of those instances.
At least 12 people who were shot by Oklahoma law enforcement so far this year reportedly exchanged gunfire with officers, according to a review by The Frontier. Records show at least six suspects were shot by officers after pointing a firearm but not firing toward law enforcement.
So while the allegations against Hill are not particularly unusual, the fact that Hill is currently a free man is.
Earlier this month a Tulsa man named John Terry Chatman Jr. shot a Tulsa Police officer during a traffic stop at a midtown Quiktrip. Chatman was charged with three counts of shooting with intent to kill and one count of possession of a firearm after former conviction of a felony — the same counts Hill was arrested for last month — despite being on life support at a Tulsa hospital.
In the first officer involved shooting of the year, a Texas man named Jorge Juarez reportedly pointed a firearm during an encounter with law enforcement in Caddo County. Juarez was shot, but survived. Three weeks after the shooting, Juarez was charged with feloniously pointing a firearm.
An Oklahoma City man named Jason Daniel Smith allegedly fired at OKC PD officer Mark List on Jan. 25. Smith was shot, but survived — court records show he was charged with shooting with intent to kill about two weeks later.
On March 25, a Lawton man named Steven Anthony Thompson allegedly brandished a firearm during an encounter with police and was shot. Thompson, the officer said, was fleeing with a handgun when he began to turn toward the officer. The officer shot Thompson in the leg and abdomen.
Thompson survived and was charged four days later with assault with a deadly weapon.
So what’s going on with Hill’s case? It’s unclear.
Hill did not respond to voicemails left on the phone number he provided to jail officials when he was booked into jail, and the prosecutor assigned to Hill’s case said he had no timeframe for when to expect any investigative files on the case from the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.
As for the OHP, their spokesman said the case was “still under investigation,” and that “we are still working with the DA’s office.”
Requests by The Frontier for documents identifying the officers involved in the shooting as well as for dash camera video of the incident have not yet been responded to by the OHP. The OHP did not respond to questions about whether the officers involved in Hill’s shooting had been placed on administrative leave.
