TULSA – The parents of a north Tulsa family of five are hugging their children a little tighter this week after one was held at gunpoint Tuesday night.
Tulsa police say a husband and wife were outside of their home at East Latimer Place and North Sheridan Road when they heard their 9-year-old son scream.
“My son screamed, ‘Mom!’ and it was just not a normal ‘Mom!’ scream, you know. It was terrifying," said Ryan Petka, father.
When the couple ran inside, they found a man holding their son and pointing a gun to his head, says police.
The father of the boy told 2 Works for You that the 9-year-old was coming home from hanging out with friends when he noticed a man on the front porch. The boy says the man asked if he could cut the grass on the front lawn. After the boy said he would have to check with his parents, the man put his foot in the doorway and pulled out a gun.
“There’s a gentleman standing on our porch asking if he can mow our yard, and my son was like, 'Uh, no.' And he was like, 'OK, well is your parents home?' And he said, 'Yeah.' And he said, 'OK, go get them.'”
As Petka's son dealt with the man on the front porch, Petka, his wife and two young daughters were in the backyard.
Petka says the suspect, whose face was visible, ordered them on the kitchen floor. Then Petka, his wife and the three children, ages nine, four and two, were forced into the family’s bathroom.
“When someone’s got a gun to your son’s head, you know, you kind of just obey.”
When the family was able to get out of the room, they discovered that money had been stolen from the mother’s purse and the father’s wallet, as well as their cellphones.
The couple described the suspect to police as a black man around 6-foot-2, weighing around 220 pounds and between the ages of 20 to 25.
Tulsa police went on to say that the family reported hearing a second suspect but did not see another person.
Petka went on to say that his wife was on the phone with her mother in San Diego when the robbery took place. The suspect took the phone but did not hang up the call, prompting the grandmother to hear the entire incident and alert authorities.
“She [the grandmother] got to listen to the entire thing that happened, and so she called the police from San Diego.”
Unfortunately, Tulsa police were not able to make it in time and arrived just minutes after the suspects left the scene.
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