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Officer's Home Burglarized by Suspected Murderer

TULSA, OK – Tulsa police shot a man Monday who had been wanted for questioning in a burglary in which guns and police gear were stolen from a police detective’s home.

The two officers who shot Denny Edward Phillips, 32, were not identified Monday night, but Tulsa Police Capt. Rick Helberg said they were accompanying U.S. marshals and federal agents who were trying to serve arrest warrants on him at the Motel 6 at 1011 S. Garnett Road.

Phillips also is a “person of interest” in six homicides that occurred when four people — two of whom were pregnant — were slain in Oklahoma City, Tulsa Police Officer Jason Willingham confirmed Monday evening.

Phillips came out of a motel room as though he were going to surrender about 5:40 p.m. and fled down a breezeway, Helberg said.

When the officers saw a gun in Phillips’ hand, they shot him several times, he said.

Willingham said Phillips pulled the gun out from under a hat.

Phillips was taken by ambulance in serious condition to St. John Medical Center, EMSA spokesman Chris Stevens said.

Tulsa County deputies had identified Phillips on Monday as a “person of interest” in the burglary of Tulsa Police Sgt. Mike Huff’s Tulsa County home last week. The Sheriff’s Office, which was investigating the burglary, is handling the investigation of the police shooting, as well, spokesman Shannon Clark said.

Phillips was known to frequent northeastern Oklahoma, Sheriff’s Capt. John Bowman said.

Huff’s home was burglarized between 7:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. Wednesday while Huff was speaking at a conference for cold-case investigators in Florida, authorities said. The thief or thieves stole a Tulsa police uniform and badges, guns, family heirlooms and a red extended-cab 2003 Chevrolet S-10 pickup with four-wheel drive, four doors and a fiberglass bed cover.

The serial number on the gun Phillips had at the motel had not yet been compared with the guns that were stolen from Huff’s home, but it was very similar to one of Huff’s, Willingham said.

Other items that officers saw in Phillips’ motel room also resembled things Huff had reported stolen, he said.

Officers were obtaining a search warrant that would allow them to search the room and examine its contents, Willingham said.

Tulsa County Chief Deputy George Haralson said public safety is a concern any time police equipment or weapons are stolen.

In the Oklahoma City homicides, Brooke Phillips and Milagrous Barrera — both 22 and pregnant — died of gunshot wounds. Their bodies were found with two others in a burning home in November.

Brooke Phillips had worked at the Moonlite Bunny- Ranch, a legal brothel near Carson City, Nev., which was featured in an HBO reality series, “Cathouse.”

The other two victims were Casey Barrientos, 32, and his girlfriend, Jennifer Ermey, 25.

David Allen Tyner, 28, of Locust Grove is charged with six counts of first-degree murder in connection with the homicides. He remained in the Oklahoma County Jail on Monday.

Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater confirmed to The Oklahoman late Monday that he warned his employees in an e-mail that Phillips “is a very dangerous person who ordered the hits on six people in south OKC earlier this year.” The e-mail was obtained by the Tulsa World.

Any link between Brooke Phillips and Denny Phillips was not clear Monday night.

Denny Phillips has convictions in Mayes County for attempted burglary of an automobile, false declaration to a pawnbroker, assault with a deadly weapon, escape from a county jail, injuring a public building and possession of contraband in jail.

Anyone with information about the burglary or the location of the stolen property is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 596-COPS or send a text message or an online tip to tulsaworld.com/crimestoppers .

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