Tyler Buttram, the mayor of Mannford, Okla., can’t remember the last time someone was killed in the 3,500-person town near Tulsa.

But a killing more than 800 miles away, in Pensacola, Fla., that left Mannford’s police chief dead and his detective and close friend in jail on a homicide charge has jolted the salt-of-the earth community and drawn unwanted attention to a town previously known to outsiders for its R.V. parks along the meandering shores of Keystone Lake. It has also sent town officials scrambling to provide answers, and move forward.

“Everybody is confused,” Mr. Buttram, 37, said. “Nobody could wrap their heads around this.”

The two men — 44-year-old Lucky Miller, who had been Mannford’s police chief since 2007, and 49-year-old Michael Nealey, whom Mr. Miller hired to the eight-person department several years ago — had been attending a law enforcement training conference in the Florida Panhandle.

On Sunday around 9:50 p.m., the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office responded to complaints at the H ilton Pensacola Beach hotel, where deputies found Chief Miller unresponsive on the floor, and Mr. Nealey lying a short distance away, mumbling, according to a police report.