Two suspects in Wednesday’s fatal shooting in Morristown were arrested Thursday afternoon by Oklahoma Highway Patrol Troopers near Tulsa.
Tyrell Lansing and DeQuan McDaniel, both 27, were stopped near I-44 and taken into custody without incident, reported Tulsa TV station NewsOn6.
Morris County investigators had been tracking the suspects’ cell phones and alerted Oklahoma authorities that they were heading towards Tulsa, the station reported.
Given the make of car and tag number, Oklahoma Troopers spotted the vehicle around noon, and coordinated their response.
“New Jersey was pinging the cell phones and they were relaying the information to us and we were moving our troopers from all over the county to this particular area so we could block roads, in case this did turn into a pursuit, we could be ready for the worst case scenario,” OHP Trooper Mark Southall told the station.
Lansing and McDaniel were taken to Tulsa County Jail to await extradition to New Jersey, according to the report.
The Morris County Prosecutor’s Office has released no information about the suspects or the victim, believed to be a male in his 20s.
Residents of the Manahan Village public housing development reported hearing gunshots around 1 am Wednesday on Clyde Potts Drive, where a group of people had been congregating.
One resident told Morristown Green she saw someone speed off in a white Land Rover. The suspects appear to have been driving a dark-colored Hyundai Elantra in Oklahoma.
PRIOR CONVICTIONS: WEAPONS, SEXUAL ASSAULT
Lansing, from Morristown, was accused of shooting two men at a graduation party in Victory Gardens in 2016.
The shooting victims did not testify against him, and charges of attempted murder were dropped. Lansing pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a weapon, and was sentenced in 2017 to five years in prison.
At sentencing, Lansing’s lawyer told the judge his client was affected by the death of a newborn child, had tried tried plumbing school, and realized he would die young if he didn’t change, the Daily Record reported.
Lansing got credit for a year’s detention, and was released last October.
He has a prior weapons conviction in North Carolina, for possessing a stolen handgun. He also has disorderly persons convictions for harassment and assault in Morris County.
McDaniel pleaded guilty to conspiracy and aggravated criminal sexual contact stemming from the gang rape of an intoxicated 17-year-old girl at Morristown’s Lafayette Learning Center in 2011.
At the time, McDaniel, of Dover, was a juvenile. He was charged as an adult, and got a year’s probation after spending time in jail after his arrest in 2012.
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