17-Year-Old Arrested In Connection With OKC Homicide

Oklahoma City police arrested a teenager on Saturday in connection with a homicide after witnesses said he confessed to shooting a person inside a car and then setting the car on fire.

Taylor Lawrence, 17, stands accused of first-degree murder and is being held without bond at the Oklahoma County jail. He is yet to be formally charged.

Cellphone video shot by a neighbor showed firefighters trying to put out the car fire after midnight Saturday. Once the fire was out, they discovered a body in the driver's seat.

This all happened in the 12000 block of Clarence Court in the Fox Run addition near NW 122 and MacArthur Boulevard.

Neighbors told News 9 the car had been parked there and running for at least three hours with the headlights on the night before, but no one noticed anyone inside until firefighters arrived.

Now, court documents released Monday reveal Lawrence is being held in connection with the grizzly crime. Lawrence was formally arraigned Monday afternoon.

Court papers showed police originally responded to a shots fired call in the area, only to discover firefighters dealing with the burning car. They later received word from The Village Police Department that two witnesses called with information about the shooting and the fire. 

They revealed both Lawrence and the victim were inside that car trading guns when Lawrence admitted to witnesses that he shot the victim when he refused to make the trade. 

Court records state Lawrence and the witnesses ran from the scene to a nearby house, and then Lawrence drove the witnesses home.

The arrest warrant states in the process, he stopped near Reno Avenue and Martin Luther King Avenue, where he reportedly got rid of the gun used in the shooting.

According to the affidavit, the witnesses told police they encouraged Lawrence to turn himself in, and that he admitted to them that he went back to the victim's car and set it on fire.

According to the Oklahoma medical examiner's office, the man's body was burned so badly, they will have to do DNA tests to identify the remains. A spokesperson said that could take weeks unless a family member is able to help identify the remains.