Witnesses Speak Out After Deadly Shooting At SW OKC Apartment

<p>Gunshots rang out at a southwest Oklahoma City apartment complex overnight. When police arrived, they discovered a man shot dead on the ground, and witnesses say the security guard is the one who killed him.</p>

Thursday, July 14th 2016, 5:37 pm

By: News 9


Gunshots rang out at a southwest Oklahoma City apartment complex overnight. When police arrived, they discovered a man shot dead on the ground, and witnesses say the security guard is the one who killed him.

It happened at the Potomac House apartment complex near SW 59th and May Ave.

Police identify the security guard at the Potomac house apartments as 31-year-old Joseph Modia.

Apartment management confirms Modia works for a security company contracted by the complex. And those who witnessed the shooting say bullets were flying back and forth between two other people when the security guard responded to the scene.

That is when the security guard fired his gun, hitting and killing 38-year-old Kenta Stepney.

“He gone man and there ain’t no coming back,” said Charmaine Reeves, who saw the shooting and knows Stepney. “You can't bring him back, nobody can make me happy and bring him back.”

Reeves says she and her family are left heartbroken over the loss of Stepney. Reeves says the 38-year-old was her mother's boyfriend and was like a father to her. She says he was just trying to defend her sister, who had a run in with a man in the parking lot.

“I heard my sister really screaming,” said Reeves. “She run up the stairs saying some grown man just hit her.”

Reeves says they went looking for the man who hit her sister and confronted him, and that's when he pulled out a gun and started shooting.

Reeves says that's when Stepney pulled out his gun and started shooting too.

Police say when the security guard arrived, he saw the shootout and was confronted by Stepney, who still had the gun in his hands. And that's when the security guard returned fire.

“Pop, pop, pop, pop, he just shooting like this,” said Reeves. “And that's when I noticed that he said, ‘I'm hit, I’m hit, I’m hit.’ That's when I ran after him and saw him on the ground. And I picked him up and I am telling him, ‘Just stay with me.’”

News 9 checked and Stepney does have a criminal background and has served time in prison for armed robbery and drug possession and was in the Oklahoma County jail last year on gun-related charges after a former felony conviction. But Reeves and her family loved him and accepted him and can't believe his life is over.

Police say the security guard has been questioned and released and it will be up to the DA to see if any charges will be filed.

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