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Road Rage Homicide: Family remembers woman gunned down over Tulsa traffic incident

Posted at 6:09 PM, Aug 29, 2022
and last updated 2022-08-30 11:41:23-04

TULSA, Okla. — A Tulsa family shared a woman's story Monday less than two weeks after someone shot and killed her in what police called a road rage incident.

Tulsa police say Julian Zavaleta shot and killed 25-year-old Shantel Jones in the AutoZone parking lot near 51st Street and Peoria on Aug. 19. Jones's family says they think she cut Zavaleta off trying to get into the auto parts store.

“Anybody that Shantel knew out there, we pretty much knew the people that she knew," said Jones's older sister Shantel Smith. "She pretty much stayed to herself.”

Jones, originally from the Bronx, moved to Tulsa with a friend and planned on living with family in Georgia in December. Her four sisters said they thought of her as the life of the party.

“Her energy was just so unmatched.”

Tulsa Police Homicide Sgt. Brandon Watkins said he also thinks road rage led to the shooting.

“When people have guns ready and available they tend to do stupid stuff with them, and a young woman died," Watkins said. He said Zavaleta drove to his family's "meal business" south of the AutoZone with the gun and turned himself in.


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