POLICE KILL SUSPECTED METH-LAB OPERATOR

Police shot and killed a suspected meth-lab operator Friday, ending a
10-hour standoff at a south Oklahoma City apartment complex.

The dead man had not been identified as of Friday night pending
notification of family members.

The standoff began Thursday night as police checked out an anonymous tip
about a meth lab at Pine Ridge Apartments, 6300 S Santa Fe, police Maj.
Chuck Allen said.

Officers said that when they arrived, they smelled and saw a working lab in
the apartment. They arrested three men: William Jack Cantrell, 24; Steven
Boyd Johnston, 37; and John Wayne Shafer, 27.

A fourth man tried to get away by running out a back door. He saw other
officers, retreated and barricaded himself in a bedroom.

Officers evacuated the complex.

About midnight, officers heard two gunshots in the bedroom, Allen said.
Despite verbal commands over a bullhorn, the man, armed with a handgun,
refused to surrender. At 5 a.m., a police tactical team member broke a
window to the bedroom and looked inside. He saw the man had a handgun and
what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

For several hours, police talked to the man through the window, trying to
convince him to surrender.

"We had to do something to get this guy to give up," Allen said. "He was
bleeding heavily."

Officers used a grenade loaded with pepper spray, and then about 8 a.m., a
form of tear gas. That is when the suspect shot at a police tactical team
member, who returned fire and killed him.

Sgt. Don Holland, 30, fired the fatal shot. He has been on the police force
for nine years and has been put on routine paid administrative leave while
the incident is investigated.

The three men arrested all had prior arrests. Shafer was jailed April 17 on
complaints of making a false declaration of ownership at a pawn shop and
concealing stolen property. Johnston was arrested Dec. 16 on a complaint of
having a false driver's license and petty larceny. Cantrell was jailed in
1996 on a grand larceny complaint, jail records show.

As the standoff unfolded, residents stood and sat outside.

Twenty-three people, including 12 children, ended up sleeping overnight on
the pavement in the middle of Santa Fe Avenue.

The Red Cross arrived about midnight Thursday to provide food, water, and
assistance to firefighters, police and the evacuated residents.

But not knowing how long the standoff would continue, the Red Cross did not
make arrangements for lodging.

"Everyone thought the people would be able to go back into their apartment
sooner," said Lauri Hanna, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma County Red Cross.

"What we normally respond to are natural disasters like tornadoes, floods
and apartment fires. A meth lab is unusual."

About 7 a.m. Friday, residents still on the street were told to go to the
Wilmont Place Baptist Church gymnasium, south of the complex on Santa Fe.
Police officers wearing heavy rubber suits spent Friday cleaning the meth
lab. Residents were allowed to return at 5 p.m.

Two days before the standoff, neighbor Kevin Shephard said he confronted
the dead man in the apartment parking lot.

Shephard said the man was a known meth "cooker," and people in the Pine
Ridge Apartments were tired of the danger the meth lab presented to the
children and other residents.

"He was a dope cooker and his partners were dope dealers," Shephard said
Friday morning.

"He blew me off. He said, 'I ain't cookin.' Well, we all know that is a lie
this morning," Shephard said as he stood inside the Wilmont Place Baptist
Church gymnasium with others evacuated from the apartments.

"He was into the hottest thing going right now in this state - meth, and
they were goin' 900 mph," Shephard said.

CONTRIBUTING: Staff writer Tom Lindley