Michael Vance Shootout with Oklahoma Highway Patrol

OKLAHOMA CITY (Tulsa World) — New details emerged Tuesday as the Oklahoma Highway Patrol released graphic videos of the chase and killing of fugitive double-murder suspect Michael Dale Vance Jr.

The video shows Vance blowing through a roadblock around 9:55 p.m. Sunday in Custer County in a stolen farm truck, exchanging gunfire with authorities under the cover of nightfall. He was armed with an AK-47 assault rifle.

A pursuing trooper fires his M4 assault rifle through the windshield of his patrol vehicle. Vance exits the truck, which rolls backward. He can be seen on video from a law enforcement helicopter using his vehicle as shield while firing at troopers.

“He had every intention of taking troopers with him,” Oklahoma Highway Patrol Chief Rick Adams said Tuesday.

About 9:59 p.m., Vance falls to the ground after being struck. It was not immediately known how many bullet wounds he sustained.

His weapon had no rounds left when it was recovered, Adams said.

The video was released during a press conference attended by a number of law enforcement entities, including the OHP; Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation; FBI; Oklahoma County Sheriff; Wellston Police Department; U.S. Marshals Service; Custer County Sheriff; and Roger Mills County Sheriff. Troopers involved in the shooting were Micah Whittington, Brian Costanza, Chris Hanover, Trent Keasler and Brandon Seward.

Adams said the troopers did an extraordinary job under very stressful conditions.
Vance had been on the run since Oct. 23 when he allegedly shot two Wellston police officers who are recovering from their injuries, said Wellston Police Chief Tim Estes.

“Everybody is going to be OK,” he said.

Later that day, Vance drove to the Luther home of his relatives, Valerie Kay Wilkson and Ronald Everett Wilkson, allegedly killing them and stealing their vehicle. Around 2:51 Sunday, authorities received information that Vance was in the area of the western Oklahoma town of Hammon. Around 9:47 p.m., law enforcement was notified that Dewey County Sheriff Clay Sander had attempted to pull over a stolen vehicle driven by Vance, Adams said. The vehicle was dragging chain that was causing sparks that the sheriff believed could cause a fire, Adams said.Sander was wounded when he exchanged shots with Vance, but is expected to recover, Adams said. That confrontation was followed by Vance running the roadblock and his fatal gunfight with troopers. “Vance could have ended this any time peacefully,” said Public Safety Commissioner Michael Thompson. He called Vance a determined violent criminal with no regard for life.

Thompson said that while none of his officers were struck by gunfire, some might have hearing damage.

Thompson said that in his 27 years in law enforcement, he has never seen this level of cooperation between county, state and federal law enforcement entities.

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