Police say their investigation of the deadly shooting spree in Tulsa, Okla., will include the racially charged Facebook postings of a man arrested this morning in connection to the attacks, although they say it's premature to describe the incident as a hate crime.
Two white men were arrested in connection with the random attacks that left three black pedestrians dead and two in critical condition, police said.
Jake England, 19, and Alvin Watts, 32, were arrested at a house north of Tulsa around 2 a.m. this morning and are expected to be charged with three counts of murder and two counts of shooting with intent to kill, according to officials.
"I'm just really amazed at how quickly we were able to apprehend these two subjects," Task force commander Maj. Walter Evans said at a news conference today. "But there are still a whole lot of unanswered questions that we have to have answered."
The shootings occurred nearly two years to the day after a black man shot England's father to death, according to his Facebook posting.
But the FBI's James Finch, who was part of the task force handling the case, today called it "very premature to talk about hate crimes. We have yet to analyze all the information to understand the motivations of the subjects in this case."
Although police were reluctant to call the killings a hate crime, others were less so.