Police Called To NW OKC Complex Two Times Per Day

OCPD officials are releasing statistics that show a growing danger for an apartment complex next to an Oklahoma City elementary school.

Friday, February 8th 2013, 9:05 pm

By: News 9

Police Called To NW OKC Complex Two Times Per Day

OCPD officials are releasing statistics that show a growing danger for an apartment complex next to an Oklahoma City elementary school.

Residents say Britton Courtyards Apartments at North Rockwell and Britton is a crime hot spot.

In the past three years, police say they have been called to Britton Courtyards an average of two times a day for everything from shootings and assaults to burglaries. That violence caused neighboring Wiley Post Elementary to go on lock down earlier this week. The danger is making students and parents nervous.

On Tuesday, police say Marquice Allen and Christopher O'Neill shot and critically injured Spencer Davis, an Oklahoma City police officer's son. Ever since the shooting, the morning routine for Jennifer Redd's daughter has changed.

"[My daughter's] bus leaves so early in the morning and it's dark," Redd said. "She's just…nervous, so she has her dad walk her to the bus stop in the morning and wait with her."

Most of the children who live at Britton Courtyards do not have to walk far to get to school. Wiley Post Elementary shares a fence with the complex. But parents fear a fence is not enough.

"We went in the closet and some of my classmates were screaming," one student said. "They were scared."

Residents say the surrounding area is nice and it is just the complex that has gone "downhill" in recent years. Police have been called to the Britton Courtyards nearly 2,000 times in the past three years, according to records kept with the city's police dispatch.

There is security at the complex. News 9 met one of the guards Friday, who told the News 9 crew to get lost. The apartments' management refused to give comment for this story.

Two months ago, police arrested a man at the complex for killing his girlfriend's dog. In 2012, a man was shot at the complex. In November of 2011, a grandmother and her grandchild were threatened by armed men during a home invasion.