“I had to get out of the way,” Off-duty officer talks about chaotic shooting at Walmart
OKLAHOMA CITY OK Jan 18, 20222– An off-duty police officer involved in a shooting while working as a security guard at a local Walmart reflected on the night he found his life on the line while staring down the barrel of a gun.
“A very frightening night,” said Jones Police Officer Oliver Murray, Jr. “I am blessed to be here.”
Officer Murray said he was off duty Nov. 20 and was working as a security guard for the Walmart on Belle Isle Blvd. in Oklahoma City.
That’s when Oklahoma City police said 43-year-old Chartez Chappell tried to leave the store without paying for a bicycle, while at the same time making a small purchase for food and supplies. Chappell was then confronted by employees then security.
“It turned for the worse,” Murray said. “He was not compliant. He wasn’t following my commands.”
Inside the store, a scuffle between the two broke out.
Murray said he tasered Chappell, sending him to the ground face first.
When Murray went to cuff the suspect, Chappell turned around with a gun. Murray was staring straight down the barrel.
“What was going through your mind?” KFOR asked him.
“My life,” Murray said. “I just knew I had to get out of the way.”
He didn’t know it at the time, but Murray said Chappell still had a holster on the gun, stopping Chappell from being able to pull the trigger.
“So in my mind, it was protect or get out,” he said.
While taking off, Chappell fired three shots. Murray was hit in the hand-cuff holster on his belt.
“It was like someone put the hot metal and touched it through your clothes and it kind of burned. I knew I felt heat. I knew I was shot,” Murray said.
After patting himself down and not finding any blood, Murray went out searching for the suspect.
“I stayed in the low areas between cars to make sure I could still see his every move because I heard sirens on the way,” he said.
Moments later, Oklahoma City police arrived on scene, as Chappell allegedly continued firing in the parking lot.
Chappell was arrested later at a nearby Chili’s, with a broken cigarette in his mouth.
Murray said, he’ll never forget his brush with death.
“I know that anything can happen at a given time. I just got to prepare for it. But, I stay blessed by the Lord and my family knows what I do,” he said.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Chappell is facing charges of shooting with intent to kill.
KFOR
