Tulsa Police: Church Member Shoots Suspected Copper Thief

Thursday, August 15th 2019, 5:33 am

By: News On 6

Tulsa Police say a church member shot a suspected burglar at the Church of Christ near Pine and Sheridan. Officers say this church has been burglarized several times for copper in the past two weeks.

Police were called out for a possible burglary overnight Thursday, but didn't find anything at the time.

Two church members stayed overnight to keep an eye on the church and put up security cameras, according to TPD. Sometime around 4 a.m. Thursday morning, the church members told officers heard someone on the roof.

The church members came outside to confront the man and then shots were fired.

Police say the suspected burglar was shot in stomach. They say he was talking to police and taken to the hospital.

Timothy Luster is the minister at Church of Christ, and he says the thieves have destroyed all their air conditioning units to get the copper. Now they don't have any air conditioning inside the church.

"It's rather frustrating to have people come and invade, you know, the house and destroy properties that cost a lot of money," said Minister Timothy Luster.

Luster said they will finish installing the security cameras and put cages around their AC units.