The Associated Press
DEVOL, Okla. (AP) -- Maj. Damon Devereaux is still trying to understand why someone gunned down Highway Patrolman Nikky Green on a desolate county road in Cotton County on Friday morning.
Devereaux and Green worked together in Guthrie before Green moved back to southwestern Oklahoma where he grew up.
Green, 35, was shot and killed at about 7 a.m. while checking on a suspicious vehicle north of Devol, about five miles from the Oklahoma-Texas state line.
Officials in both states were still searching for the shooting suspect Saturday.
“We’re running down a lot of leads,” said Jessica Brown, Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman. “The FBI is now involved and helping out. They have certain resources that we don’t.”
Troopers from Oklahoma and Texas were monitoring traffic on Interstate 40 and U.S. 70 Friday.
Brown said there have been reports of sightings of the suspect, but nothing substantial.
The suspect has been described as a clean-cut white male in his mid 20s to early 30s, about 5-foot-11 to 6-foot-3, and was last seen driving a white four-door car, possibly a Nissan or Toyota.
People who knew Green described him as a man who cared more for others than he did himself.
“All the teachers and kids just adored him,” Devereaux said of Green and his work as a DARE officer in Guthrie. “His compassion for other people was just incredible. I can’t imagine that anybody would want to hurt him.”
Green was on patrol by himself Friday morning and died about a mile from his home.
The shooting has shaken Devol residents, many who knew Green since he was a child.
“It’s a tragedy,” Terry Baber, a local wheat producer and friend of the Green family, told the Times Record News in Wichita Falls, Texas. “Everybody knew Nik and his family. He was the nicest young man you ever met.”
Green moved back to the area few years ago to help take care of his aging parents.
“Everybody thought a lot of Nikky,” Baber said. “He’d worn a badge ever since he was little.”
Green was an ordained minister, a husband and a father of three young daughters.
“He was my friend,” said Vicky Thompson, a clerk at the Kwik Sak convenience store in Grandfield, a regular stop for Green.
“It’s a tragedy. Everybody who’s come in feels the same way,” she said. “It’s a great loss to the world.”
Green work with children at the First Baptist Church, drove the bus on trips and collected youngsters for Sunday services.
Bobby D. Waitman, pastor of the church, said Green had recently told him that he should die he wanted people to have a chance to know Jesus Christ.
“He was a living sacrifice, that’s what he was while he was alive,” Waitman said. “Nik would want God glorified in this.”
Green, began his law enforcement career with the Cotton County Sheriff’s Department, then went to work at Guthrie before attending the OHP academy six years ago.
“He was one of those guys that as soon as you met him and shook his hand, you knew he was a good guy,” Devereaux said. “He always had a smile on his face, always had something good to say no matter how bad a situation was.
In February, Green was transferred from Tillman County to Cotton County and a few months ago moved his family to Devol.
Green was a mentor to Todd Lewis, a trooper with the Texas Department of Safety, who met Green while a police officer in Grandfield.
“He made me go out and practice my shooting and taught me a lot about law enforcement,” Lewis said. “The best way to explain him is that he was the most professional police officer I’ve ever met. He shined his boots every day, and his gear.”