Police: 4 women fatally shot at Tulsa apartment
By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICUS, Associated Press
Jan 7, 2013 5:09 PM CST
Officer Leland Ashley briefs reporters after a quadruple homicide at Tulsa's Fairmont Terrace apartment complex on Monday, Jan. 7, 2013. Four women were found shot to death inside an apartment, where a 4-year-old boy was also found unharmed. (AP Photo/Tulsa World, Matt Barnard ) TV OUT; TULSA OUT   (Associated Press)

Four young women were found shot to death in the same apartment in a rugged part of south Tulsa on Monday, apparent victims of a midday shooting spree at a building near a park along the Arkansas River. A 4-year-old was found unharmed.

Police wouldn't say whether the victims _ all in their late teens or early 20s _ were related or how they would have known each other, and wouldn't say whether the boy was related to any of them. Police said they did not yet know not yet know why the women were shot, and officers were searching for a suspect.

"Our detectives are beating the bushes and so are our patrol officers and our gang units," Tulsa police spokesman Leland Ashley said.

The neighborhood around the Fairmont Terrace Apartments is a seedy oasis in the rest of south Tulsa. The Southern Hills Country Club is a mile east and Oral Roberts University is two miles southeast.

At the apartment complex, bed sheets or cardboard hang as improvised draperies in many windows behind a black wrought-iron gate. The guard shack is empty and signs read "Curfew 10 p.m. for everyone, everyday" and "Photo ID required to be on property."

The building's website says a courtesy safety patrol is available after dark, but police believe the killings occurred between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Officer Jill Roberson said police received a 911 call about 12:30 p.m., and Ashley said someone had spoken to someone at the apartment less than an hour earlier.

Frankie Williams, 25, an oil field worker, said his girlfriend lives about 100 feet from the apartment where the women were found dead.

"She's going to be moving out right quick. This is not the place to be raising a 3-month-old," he said. "This is pretty intense."

Sennie Anderson, 20, is soon to mark two years at the apartment complex.

"I've been afraid since I moved in this place," she said, clutching her visibly upset 3-year-old daughter, Da'Mya. "I think it's getting worse."

Ashley said police were hopeful someone in the community would come forward with more information about the shootings.

"We still have a lot of questions that need to be answered at this point. ... Our concern is for the small child, possibly having to witness this horrific tragedy," Ashley said.

See 5 more photos