By Darla Slipke
The Oklahoman
SENTINEL, Okla. — A call to 911 to make a bomb threat against a school in a southwest Oklahoma town was not made from the house where the police chief was shot on Thursday morning, investigators said Friday.
The question of who did make the bomb threat — called in to 911 about 4 a.m. Thursday — remains unanswered.
What is known is that in response to the threat, authorities broke in the door of a house about 6 a.m. Thursday at 205 S 4, where Police Chief Louis Ross was shot three times in the chest and once in the arm by a man in the home.
Ross survived thanks to a bullet-proof vest loaned to him by a sheriff’s deputy minutes before the raid, investigators said. He has been released from the hospital.
Friday, an Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation forensic computer analyst examined phones taken from the home, agents said.
OSBI released a statement saying the 911 call “was not made from phones in the possession of those who live inside the home nor any other phones inside the residence at 205 S. 4th in Sentinel.”
Sentinel Mayor Sam Dlugonski and a neighbor on S 4 said the man who lives at 205 S 4 is Dallas Horton. Dlugonski said Friday that someone called 911 and used the name Dallas Horton to make the bomb threat.
Investigating authorities have not identified the person who shot Ross but confirmed that the shooter was questioned at length and released after agents determined he was not aware it was officers who had barged into his house.
As of Friday afternoon, no arrests had been made in connection with the shooting or the bomb threat.
“Everything is still under investigation,” OSBI spokeswoman Jessica Brown said.
OSBI officials said the man who shot Ross was cooperating with the ongoing investigation.
After the bomb threat was made, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol bomb squad cleared numerous buildings, including the home where the shooting took place, and no trace of explosives was found, OSBI reported.
The threat was made against the Sentinel Community Action Center, Dlugonski said. The building houses the town’s Head Start program.
After the threat, Ross and two deputies from the Washita County sheriff’s office raided the house on S 4.
Dlugonski said Ross has been the police chief in Sentinel, which has a population of about 900 people, for a little more than a year.
Attempts to reach Horton on Friday were unsuccessful.
Copyright 2015 The Oklahoman