Tulsa Shooting Suspect Was Friendly With Victim: Wife

Jake England had visited with William Allen, wife says
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 11, 2012 10:54 AM CDT
Tulsa Shooting Suspect Was Friendly With Victim: Wife
This photo combo of images provided by the Tulsa Police Department via the Tulsa World shows Jacob England, left, and Alvin Watts.   (AP Photo/Tulsa Police Department via Tulsa World)

William Allen was friendly with Jake England, occasionally chatting with him when they ran into each other—but now England, along with Alvin Watts, is accused of killing Allen during last week's Tulsa shooting spree. Allen's widow tells the Tulsa World that Allen and England met at the apartment complex where England's sister lives—the same complex where England's father, Carl, was killed by a black man in 2010—and that England actually visited the apartment of Allen's brother at least once. "He's all I had, and I was all he had," says Jeanette Allen of her dead husband.

Acquaintances of England say the shootings were likely in retaliation for Carl England's death, although prosecutors believe Pernell Demond Jefferson actually shot him in self-defense, after a fight that started at Jake England's sister's apartment. Authorities are so far theorizing that the victims in last week's shooting spree were chosen randomly and may have been targeted because they were black. An England family friend says England believed at least one of the victims was related to his father's killer, but Jefferson's family says it doesn't know any of the victims. (More William Allen stories.)

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