Osage County fugitive shoots self to death at Bartlesville shopping center

An Osage County fugitive who fatally shot himself in Bartlesville last week had been the subject of a Pawhuska manhunt 44 days earlier.

William David Parks, Jr., apparently took his own life Thursday as authorities attempted to take him into custody on the parking lot of Eastland Shopping Center. Shortly after the incident, the 36-year-old convicted felon was pronounced dead at a hospital located a few blocks away from where the shooting occurred.

According to a Bartlesville Police Department spokesman, Parks sustained the fatal gunshot wounds around 6 p.m. after local officers and U.S. Marshals stopped a vehicle in which he was a passenger, said BPD Capt. Jay Hastings.

Hastings said the suspect “shot himself once in the head as officers attempted to talk him out of the vehicle.” Parks was facing prosecution on several Osage County charges, including “possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and (three counts of) feloniously pointing a firearm,” the BPD officer added.

A warrant for Parks’ arrest on probation violations had been issued March 3, the same day a revocation hearing was ordered in connection with a suspended three-year sentence he received for a 2012 burglary conviction.

Parks also was suspected of eluding authorities following a Jan. 27 traffic stop in Pawhuska. More than a dozen local officers searched for a man (believed to have been Parks) who fled from the scene after Osage County deputies pulled over a vehicle at 18th Street and Grandview Avenue. The incident resulted in a temporary lockdown at local school buildings.

Earlier arrest reports listed Parks as being a resident of Hominy and Oklahoma City. He had previously served sentences with the Oklahoma Department of Corrections for Osage County convictions on charges of assault and battery on a police officer and domestic abuse. Parks also received suspended sentences for several drug-related convictions in Oklahoma County.

The Bartlesville Police spokesman said the Fugitive Task Force Team of the U.S. Marshals’ Office had contacted the BPD “in reference to a wanted suspect on an Osage County case who was staying at a local motel.” On Thursday, representatives from several law enforcement agencies — including the Osage County Sheriff’s Office — had spent the day attempting to locate Parks and apprehend him safely, he added.

Hastings said Bartlesville Police and Washington County Sheriff’s deputies “made the initial contact with the suspect vehicle at the time of the incident,” adding that authorities had previously obtained information Parks “was armed and had made statements about taking his own life if caught.”

“Officers were concerned with the public’s safety during the search for Parks,” said Hastings, who added that “every attempt was made to take him into custody in a safe area.”

According to the BPD, police found a firearm and illegal drugs when they searched the vehicle following the shooting, Taken into custody later on Thursday was Jennie Mae Dilley, a 29-year-old Wynona woman who was in the vehicle when Parks fired the gun, Hastings said.

Police executing a search warrant at the Bartlesville motel room where Parks had been staying arrested Dilley and two Pawhuska residents, Frederick Allen Reese, 26, and Sadie Diana Patterson, 22, the BPD officer added. In addition to finding drugs, the officers reportedly discovered a three-month-old child in the motel room.

The child was turned over to the custody of Oklahoma’s Department of Human Services, police said.

Washington County charges have been filed against Dilley for enabling child neglect, possession of controlled drugs and possession of controlled drugs within 1,000 feet of a park/school/minor. Patterson was charged with child neglect and possession of controlled drugs in the presence of minor under 12 years of age.

Charges pending against Reese including trafficking methamphetamine, child endangerment, possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute, paraphernalia possession, unlawful use of surveillance equipment and illegal use of a police scanner.