TULSA -- Good Friday is typically a day of renewal and sanctity for the Christian fail, but the day holds a difficult meaning in the hearts of many throughout the Tulsa community.
Five years ago on Good Friday two men, Jacob England and Alvin Watts, shot five people, killing three in north Tulsa.
The crime, believed to be radically motivated, still holds pain for some, but one community leader says years later, he hopes it brings about change.
Pastor Warren Blakney of North Peoria Church of Christ says he vividly remembers the day.
Blakney says he sees the hope learning from the murders can bring to what he calls an often divided community.
“I was actually in revival in Arkansas on the way back I started to get calls from the board that I work with saying folks had been shot,” said Blakney.
Pastor Blakney says he remembers the phone ringing and the dots not connecting.
“We got guys in the community going around killing black folks.”
He arrived to police lights, crime tape and a shaken community.
“We didn’t want it to spring into something that was going to tear our city up, so we actually pleaded for people to be patient and wait.”
Multiple police departments and community members worked nonstop until the two men were behind bars.
The justice system doing its part while families were forced to bury William Allen, Bobby Clark and Dannaer Fields.
Blakney says the act exposed Tulsa’s racial issues.
“I should have an open mind to deal with folks on the basis of their character. Dr. King said on the basis of their character."
He says five years later, the community is still strong because they come back to the place they know with the book they were raised on.
They do everything they can to separate the heinous crime from the sacred day and remember what it’s truly about and who it’s about.
“Use this anniversary of the five years to say we can be better as a community, we can be better as a city and if that happens then they’re dying certainly wouldn’t have been in vain.”
The shooters both plead guilty to the crimes and are serving life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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