Armed Robbery Suspect Dies In Shootout At West Tulsa Fireworks Stand

Tuesday, July 4th 2017, 1:22 pm

By: Emory Bryan

A 15-year-old robbery suspect is dead. Deputies are searching for another suspect from the robbery.

The owner of a fireworks stand said the robbers were in a pickup and they fired the first shot.

His son shot back, then jumped in the bed of the truck as the robbers took off.

The truck ended up a mile from the fireworks stand with a window shot out and a flat tire.

The body of a 15-year-old was in the ditch nearby. Family confirmed the dead teen was 15-year-old Jake Ulrich.

Within a half hour of the shooting, distraught family members of the teenager arrived both where he died and at the fireworks stand where the robbery happened.

Johnny Mize runs the stand with his family.

He said the robbers grabbed a $600 box of fireworks, but he and his sons tried to take it back.

"And when my son jumped out with a gun, they fired a shot, it went out here somewhere," Mize said. "He fired a shot and broken their window, then he dove in the back of the truck and me and my youngest boy tried to get in the back, but the driver, he punched the gas and we both came rolling out."

Mize was bleeding, but he took off after the truck to rescue his son.

"They just took off with him in there, and he said he had to lean over the bed of the truck and shoot the tires to get the truck stopped and when they stopped, they jumped out and took off," Mize said.

How the situation unfolded from there is less clear.

Witness Mike Wareback saw the pickup race by, then stop, with three men trying to unload the fireworks.

"And they was pushing it hard, trying to get in there, and I heard them say 'go, go' and they all jumped in the car and took off and they left the truck there and I thought, that's peculiar," Wareback said.

The 15-year-old was left by the pickup and died died at the scene.

Deputies were trying to sort out the armed robbery and the rolling shootout that followed.

They have a name of another suspect.

They interviewed Johnny Mize Junior, who fired at the robbers, but didn't arrest him.

"He's OK, but he's shook up, but he's OK. When somebody does that you have to fire a gun, it's not fun," his father said.

Before emergency crews arrived a witness snapped photos of a red vehicle, possibly a Dodge, pulling up next to the green truck.

A second suspect from the robbery joined two other men from red car. Together they loaded stolen fireworks into the red car and fled the scene.

TCSO identified the owner of the car.

The surviving suspect in the robbery is still at large, according to the sheriff's office.

The sheriff's office will give an update if the second suspect is in custody.