Officials identify victims of courthouse gunman

TULSA - A day after a gunman opened fire outside the Tulsa County Courthouse, wounding a sheriff's deputy and a bystander, officials have released the identities of the gunman's victims.

Deputy David Fortenberry was shot in the hand by 23-year-old Andrew Dennehy.

Officials say Dennehy fired multiple shots into the air across the street from the plaza between Central Library and the courthouse. 

Fortenberry and Deputies Stephen Cully and Dennis Miller arrived on the scene seconds later and exchanged fire with Dennehy.  That's when Fortenberry was shot.

Deputies fired a total of five rounds at Dennehy, striking him in the face and body.

During the exchange, a stray bullet fired from deputies hit an bystander standing inside the library's south entrance, according to police.

Officials say the man, 28-year-old Ricardo Manuel, is recovering.

A fourth person was treated at the scene, but she was not physically injured.

Dennehy remains hospitalized Thursday after doctors performed surgery following the shooting.

Officials with the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office say law enforcement's response to Wednesday's threat was spot on.

"Ultimately, the plans that we had in place and the preparation that we have always planned for in case of a situation like this, I don't know if we could have done anything different to make it better then what could have happened,"  said Sgt. Shannon Clark with Tulsa County Sheriff's Office.

It was around 2:30 Wednesday afternoon when gunshots rang out on the courthouse plaza.  Investigators say Andrew Joseph Dennehy fired several shots in the air, and deputies rushed to the scene.

"Those deputies are nothing less than heroes, they went out there, knowing that they were fixing to face somebody that had a loaded gun that has already discharged rounds," said Clark.

Officials say Dennehy fired directly at the deputies.

"We didn't know what his intentions were but when then gun comes around there's usually one intention in someone's mind when they point a gun at somebody that they know is trained to shoot back at you," said Clark.
 
Three people were injured, Deputy Fortenberry, the alleged shooter and an innocent bystander.

"Obviously this is going to be debriefed at a very high level by a lot of elected officials and say did we do the best we could with what we had? And again I think that our position is that we did," said Clark.

The question deputies still want answered, why did the shooter do it?

"Right now from our information, this guy is going to survive, maybe he'll tell us why he did what he did, that would be the one benefit to this, maybe we will know and maybe it will help us in future situations," said Clark.

Tulsa police are handling the criminal investigation.