Friday, June 8, 2012

Tulsa, OK: Man police shot suspected of killing wife

Jose Antonio Lozada, 57, was leaving the house of Joyce Ann Lozada, 64, in the 2000 block of North Delaware Avenue when Officer Ian Adair arrived at 10:28 p.m. in response to a disconnected 911 call made 18 minutes earlier, police said.

Jose Lozada refused Adair's orders to drop his gun and was shot in the hand and hip, police said. He was taken to St. John Medical Center and is expected to survive.

Police discovered Joyce Lozada's body inside with a fresh gunshot wound, Sgt. Dave Walker said.

Jose Lozada will be arrested on a first-degree murder complaint when he is released from the hospital, Walker said.

"I believe that he went there to harm her," he said. "That's the way the investigation is heading."

The couple were married in 1985 and were in divorce proceedings that began in 2010, court records show.

Joyce Lozada was granted an emergency protective order in April that prohibited her husband from coming within 300 yards of her or her house after she alleged that he came to her back door that month, demanded his belongings and said, "You'll be sorry," when she refused, court filings show.

She also alleged that he had been violent in the past and that he had a pistol and "lots of knives."

Jose Lozada's address is listed in court filings both as a house in his wife's block and a business in Catoosa.

Joyce Lozada's attorney, Michael Bargas, declined to comment on the couple's relationship. Court filings cite "complete and irreconcilable incompatibility" as grounds for the divorce.

Officer Leland Ashley said someone at Joyce Lozada's house called 911 at 10:10 p.m. Wednesday and immediately hung up. A 911 operator dispatched officers at 10:14 p.m. after returning the call and receiving no response, which is standard practice for disconnected 911 calls, he said.

Adair announced over the police radio about a minute after he arrived that shots had been fired, Ashley said.

"As you can see, it went pretty fast from the time officers were dispatched to the time the officer gets here and he's confronted with a deadly force situation," he said. "These situations are not easy. They're tense and rapidly evolving."

Adair was placed on routine administrative leave while the incident is investigated, police said.

Walker said evidence suggests that the officer was justified in shooting Jose Lozada.

Adair, 28, has worked for the Police Department since February 2007, police said.

It is not clear whether Jose Lozada shot at Adair, but a neighbor who witnessed the confrontation said the officer "didn't really have a chance to do anything other than use his gun," Walker said.

It was the fourth shooting involving a Tulsa police officer this year.

Police are seeking a man who was seen leaving the house during Jose Lozada's confrontation with his wife, Walker said. Investigators do not consider the man a suspect but want to question him, he said.

Anyone who knows the man's whereabouts or who has information about the case is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 918-596-COPS or tulsaworld.com/crimestoppers or the Homicide Tip Line at 918-798-8477 or homicide@cityoftulsa.org.

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