A man is dead after attending the Backwoods Music Festival in Stroud over the weekend.
The Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation says 34-year-old Patrick Murphy's behavior became erratic at the festival early Saturday morning.
Security guards subdued him, but Murphy stopped breathing after he was handcuffed.
First responders arrived and rushed him to a hospital in Stroud where he was later pronounced dead.
“I feel horrible. I cry every day, I haven't slept since then,” said Patrick’s father Terrence.
Terrence Murphy never thought he'd lose his son Patrick so early in life.
“Good guy, everybody liked him. He was the life of the party,” said Terrence. “He was a wild land firefighter, he went to Katrina before the hurricane hit.”
His father says Backwoods was something Patrick had been looking forward to attending. Terrance had dropped Patrick off at the festival just hours before he died.
“I paid three hundred dollars for my son's ticket to have him murdered by their security staff,” he said.
It wasn't the only run-in with security guards that folks at the festival experienced. A popular band, Fyer, posted on their page saying they cancelled their performance in Stroud after a security guard cut their tour manager with a knife. Festival organizers later fired the company.
Now that the OSBI is involved, murphy hopes he'll soon have the answers about Patrick’s death that will help give him closure.
“My point is, I don't want this to happen to anybody else,” he said. “He’s a human being. Any human being is worth justice. Those people treat him like a piece of trash and let's sweep him under the floor and forget about him. He's a human. Human lives matter.”
2 Works for You reached out to the organizers of the Backwoods Festival and the security company they hired, but did not hear back.
The Backwoods Music Festival apologized to their patrons on Facebook saying they took the necessary steps to fire the company and that they will not return next year.
The state medical examiner will determine how Patrick Murphy died.
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