Tulsa police: 95 percent of 2022′s homicide cases solved

TULSA, Okla. — Tulsa saw 68 homicides in 2022. While that number may seem high, the Tulsa Police Department (TPD) said the number is average for the city. Police said the number has been as high as 82 murders in one year.

TPD said the rate their detectives’ 95 percent solve rate is average as well. Detectives are working leads on the remaining, open homicide cases, according to the department.

The unsolved murders of 2022 include Anthony Washington, who was shot after an attempted robbery in a parking lot in February, and 51-year-old Galen Landrum, who was fatally stabbed in front of his teenage daughter in a south Tulsa apartment.

The third unsolved case is that of 17-year-old Demarion Brown. Brown was shot to death near 46th and Peoria in October.

Once an arrest is made in Brown’s case, it will be handed over to the Cherokee Nation courts due to Oklahoma’s McGirt ruling.

Lt. Brandon Watkins with TPD’s Homicide Unit Tulsa told FOX23 these cases are not cold, and detectives are still actively following up on leads.

“They’re just tough cases,” Watkins said. “Sometimes these are a marathon. Sometimes, they’re a sprint and those particular cases, they are ultra-marathons.”

As for the success rate, Watkins said it is due, in part, to the detective’s relationship with the community.

“We have a really, really good community here in Tulsa,” he told FOX23. “They talk to us. They give us information. We don’t have the whole problem with distrust with the community that, I think, some other municipalities have told me.”

The other part of their solve rate is due to dogged detective work, according to Watkins.

He said, “These guys … they live and breathe this stuff. They don’t have a life, really, outside of this place. They just work and work and work and you now, it makes me proud to be part of it.”

This gives the city closure for the loss of the lives of Tulsans this year.

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