Tulsa motel guard's deadly encounter with guest raises issues of race, private-security oversight
Source: Washington Post
Tulsa motel guard’s deadly encounter with guest raises issues of race, private-security oversight
The former sheriff’s sergeant was charged with manslaughter after the fatal shooting of a black father of three. State officials say they lack authority to review allegations of racial discrimination in granting security-guard licenses.
By Katie Mettler and Brittany Shammas
6/19/2020, 4:09:58 p.m.
Carlos Carson was crossing the parking lot of the Tulsa motel where he had stayed the night when a shower of pepper spray hit him in the face, seemingly out of nowhere.
Overnight, the 36-year-old’s car had been vandalized, and he had exchanged words over the damage with the motel’s manager and later its armed private security guard, Christopher Straight. Carson was in the process of booking another night on June 6.
But as Carson walked outside the motel, a cup of coffee in his hand, Straight instigated an incident that police would later call an unprovoked attack, one that places the role of armed security guards — especially those with a checkered past in law enforcement — in the middle of the nation’s current conversation over police reform.
Surveillance footage obtained by The Washington Post shows Straight, who is white, fire a thick stream of pepper spray at Carson, who is black, from inside his pickup truck. Carson then throws his coffee at Straight and charges at him. Seconds later, Straight pulls a gun and shoots Carson in the head. The father of three, recently working to get back on his feet after time in prison and struggles with mental health, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Tulsa Police Department took Straight in for questioning and arrested him on a complaint of first-degree manslaughter the same day. Tulsa County prosecutors filed charges of first-degree manslaughter on June 10 against Straight, who did not respond to a request for comment from The Post.
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/06/19/tulsa-security-guard-shooting/
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