From [HERE] Prosecutors in Tulsa are asking a judge to postpone arraignments for two men facing murder and hate crime charges in connection with a deadly shooting spree in April.
The Tulsa World reports that prosecutors want to delay the Oct. 22 arraignments for Jake England and Alvin Watts, who face murder and hate crimes charges stemming from the Easter weekend shootings that killed William Allen, Bobby Clark and Dannaer Fields as they were walking near their homes on Good Friday. Two others were wounded. The shootings happened in a predominantly Black section of the city and all of the victims were black. Watts is white and England is also white but he now identifies himself as Cherokee Indian despite his apparent complete lack of melanin.
Prosecutors filed their request Wednesday, saying that a one-month delay would give them additional time to determine whether to pursue the death penalty. Attorneys for England and Watts aren't opposing the delay.
Authorities believe England may have targeted black people because he wanted to avenge his father's shooting death by a black man two years ago.
During the first part of the defendants' preliminary hearing last month, England's uncle, Timothy Hoey, testified Watts told him that he and England were trying to see who could shoot the most people the night of April 6, treating it like a contest. Hoey said Watts told him a day after the killings that Watts and England each shot two people and England shot the fifth victim "that would break the tie."
Hoey also testified that the day after the shootings, England used racial slurs to describe whom they shot.