Inset: Berry Russell (Oklahoma County Detention Center). Background: A hotel parking lot in Oklahoma City, Okla. (Google Maps).
An Oklahoma man is behind bars for shooting and killing another man after flirting with the victim's wife at a hotel bar, law enforcement in the Sooner State says.
Berry Russell Jr., 54, stands accused of one count of first-degree murder for the death of 43-year-old Myron Cooper, according to the Oklahoma City Police Department.
The underlying incident occurred on the night of July 23 at the Broadway Inn & Suites OKC on Santa Fe Avenue in Oklahoma City.
The victim's wife was seen flirting with Russell on a Facebook Live video, according to court documents obtained by Oklahoma City-based NBC affiliate KFOR. In the footage, Russell whispered in the woman's ear at Sunni B's Sports Bar and Grill in the hotel — presumably due to loud music being played in the establishment.
Cooper witnessed the interaction between his wife and the other man, according to law enforcement. The husband eventually confronted Russell in the parking lot and an altercation ensued, investigators said,
The altercation quickly became violent, police said. Soon enough, the fight was broken up, according to law enforcement.
Russell said that after the first confrontation, he went back to the bar to wait until Cooper left in order to avoid another conflict, police said. But while waiting, Russell also called his own wife, according to court documents. During the phone call, the defendant told his wife to "come right."
Investigators interpreted that request to mean Russell wanted his wife to bring him a gun, according to the charging document. The wife, in turn, brought her husband the allegedly requested gun, police said.
The two men would soon meet again.
Once Russell thought Cooper had already left the hotel bar, he started walking back to his car, police said. Cooper, however, abruptly pulled up beside Russell's car, according to law enforcement.
After that, Russell claims he started to run back toward the bar when Cooper chased him down and repeatedly punched him in the back of the head, according to the court documents. Then, the defendant admittedly pulled a pistol from his pocket and shot Cooper in the chest, police said.
"The victim, after being shot, got into a vehicle and drove himself along the highway and stopped at a couple different locations," Police Sgt. Dillon Quirk told local Fox affiliate KOKH. "Police received phone calls at those locations to check on this person. He ultimately ended up at Southeast 15th and I-35. That's where he was taken into the hospital in critical condition."
Officers responded to the scene around 11:30 p.m. and located Russell shortly after rushing Cooper to the hospital.
The victim died from his injuries early the next morning, July 24.
The defendant is being detained in the Oklahoma County Detention Center on $10 million bond, jail records show.
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