Oklahoma suspect accused of shooting and killing sheriff’s deputy had plans to kill law enforcement: police

An Oklahoma man accused of shooting and killing one sheriff’s deputy and wounding another on Monday after his mother tried to evict him had plans to kill officers, Oklahoma City Police Chief Wade Gourley said Tuesday.

Benjamin Plank, 35, surrendered after a high-speed chase that ended at the entrance to Tinker Air Force Base, roughly 10 miles away from where the original shooting took place.

“There was plenty of information yesterday inside that home, and I won’t go into a lot of detail of it, but I can tell you with 100% confidence that he was planning on killing any law enforcement that came to his house,” Gourley said Tuesday.

“What he did yesterday was very well planned out. It was very cowardly. Those officers didn’t have a chance,” he continued. “That was his intention, to kill those police officers.”

Deputy Bobby Swartz, who had been with the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office since 1997, was killed in the shooting.

Deputy Mark Johns, a three-decade law enforcement veteran who was rehired in January after retiring in 2016, was wounded by gunfire and was in stable condition on Tuesday.

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Plank’s mother, who had already started the eviction process, called 911 and said that her son was “acting up” and “placing things in the driveway” on Monday morning.

When deputies arrived to serve eviction papers, they made contact with Plank at the front door, and he was uncooperative, officials said. The deputies walked around to the back door and Plank allegedly opened fire.

After the shooting, Plank fled in a truck hauling a boat and exchanged gunfire with Oklahoma City Police Department officers.

He eventually pulled up to the entrance of Tinker Air Force Base, dropped a rifle out of the window, and got out of the truck shirtless with his hands up, according to footage captured by news helicopters.

“When we searched the vehicle when the pursuit was over, there was a bag found inside the boat and in that bag there were multiple firearms and lots of ammunition,” Gourley said. “He was definitely ready for a confrontation.”

Plank was taken to a local hospital to be checked for injuries then was booked at the Oklahoma County Detention Center. He’s being held on first-degree murder and other charges.

Oklahoma County Sheriff Tommie Johnson read a letter from the family of Swartz, the deputy who was killed.

“He was a good man, an even better dad, and the world’s greatest grandad. His grandkids called him ‘Papa police man,'” Johnson said Tuesday.