By DYLAN GOFORTH
The Frontier
The security guard who shot and paralyzed a 21-year-old man earlier this year had marijuana in his truck at the time of the shooting, police records provided to The Frontier show.
Ricky Leroy Stone shot at Monroe Bird III three times on Feb. 4, when Bird drove away from a confrontation at a south Tulsa apartment complex.
One of those shots struck Bird in the neck, paralyzing him instantly, resulting in his car crashing headfirst into a tree. The other two shots, Stone said, came as Bird drove away from Deerfield Estates apartments, in the 8800 block of South Delaware Place. The guard said those shots were aimed at the red Pontiac Grand Prix’s tires, not at Bird or the 15-year-old girl in the backseat.
Monroe Bird III
Police found the marijuana inside a small vial in a laptop backpack in his pickup and Stone admitted it was his, but said he hadn’t smoked any for “at least two weeks.”
It’s not clear why Stone was not arrested or cited for the marijuana on Feb. 4, though District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler said Wednesday he was prepared to file drug possession charges against Stone if the substance found in his backpack tested positive for marijuana. Those test results have not yet been returned, he said.
Stone was not charged in connection with the shooting. The District Attorney’s office said Stone was legally allowed to defend himself after he told police he was struck by Bird’s vehicle. Stone told investigators he fired at the vehicle because Bird “was getting away” and Stone didn’t know if Bird “had a weapon or not.”
Bird has been hospitalized since the night of the shooting, unable to move his arms and legs, depending on a ventilator as he slowly learns to breathe on his own again.
Bird was in the back seat of a vehicle with a 15-year-old girl he met through a mutual friend when Stone knocked on the car’s window, police documents state.
The girl, whose name was redacted in those documents, denied she and Bird were involved in sexual activity, though Stone told investigators he believed they were. Employees of the apartment complex told police they had asked their security guards to be on alert for couples engaging in sex in the parking lot where Stone spotted Bird’s parked car.
Stone, according to his statement, as well as the girl’s, knocked on the car’s window and said “I need to see some IDs.”
Bird, according to the girl’s statement, exited the back seat of the car and locked himself in the front. Stone told police he tried to open the locked doors, then stood behind the vehicle, and said: “If you try to hit me, I will shoot.”
According to Stone, Bird backed up the car with such force that it lifted the security guard onto the trunk, causing him to shatter the back windshield with his gun hand. He told police he fired one shot as soon as he got off the trunk, and two more as the car drove away.
The girl told police that Stone was not behind the vehicle when Bird backed up, and that the first shot occurred after Bird began to drive away.
Police spoke to a number of residents in the apartment complex the night of the shooting, none of whom directly witnessed the incident.
Police records note the existence of cell phone video, but the video apparently begins after the shooting, when Stone had already pulled Bird’s body from the vehicle and had begun attempts at CPR.
That video has not been released.
dylan@readfrontier.com
918-931-9405
