At the Drop of A Hat

On January 15th, 2006, an insult was answered by a bullet. Tempers were hot on that cold winter night in Oklahoma City. Fritzi’s Hip Hop night club was a happening place in the city back in 2006. It was a place that attracted all kinds of interesting and sometimes very dangerous individuals. In this case it had attracted some hurricane survivors. Ok, folks, let me back up and explain a little bit.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, leaving thousands of people homeless. It was devastating. The Department of Housing and Urban Development, also known as H.U.D., started making arrangements in a state close by, and surrounding state. This was to give survivors a chance to have a place to go, a fresh start if you will. I’m not sure offering to send them to a place like Oklahoma was a good way to offer a fresh start, but I guess it beat the alternative.

It was a forced choice for some. Take the only option given to you or leave it and be without a home. There were some that were just too devastated to stay in New Orleans. I remember watching and working with those who came to Oklahoma to find a home. But I digress.

Three of those survivors went with about 12,000 others to live in Oklahoma, including Norman and the surrounding areas. Norman had a small concentration of survivors, with it being a college town, that made perfect sense. And for these three young men to be in this area, it didn’t seem out of the ordinary.

Kendrick Simpson, Jonathan Dalton, and Latango Robertson were all in a good mood that night, ready to get their party on. They first went back to Kendrick’s place in Norman. Kendrick needed to change and accessorize. Folks, he was getting ready to go out and have fun, why did he need an assault weapon? He took it with him like it was a lady’s clutch purse and put it in the trunk of Dalton’s White Monte Carlo.

Dalton and Robertson were not happy about the gun. It was plain by the way they were to interact about it much later in the night. They didn’t want to argue with him, since he did have it with him, it was rather disturbing to have it along. They weren’t looking to fight, but they weren’t too sure about Kendrick at that point. It didn’t stop them from going out that night.

After Kendrick was ready, the three headed over to a house party where they had some drinks and smoked some weed. At this time, it was 2006 remember, so weed wasn’t legal for medical use yet in the state of Oklahoma. It loosened the boys up for the club. They were looking forward to those fine young ladies at Fritzi’s. The gun was safely in the trunk and everyone was relaxed, in good moods.

At the club they procured some tabs of “ecstasy” and found a table. Kendrick went to get drinks. This was where he met Anthony Jones, Glen Palmer, and London Johnson. Well, he didn’t really “meet” them, more like a schoolyard kind of “meeting” was the kind of encounter is what I would have called it. They were between the table and the bar somewhere, when he first “met” them. What I find interesting at this point, for a man with a gun who wasn’t supposed to be looking for a fight, as was what he surely has said, he managed to find one. I’m sure he was really looking for this fight, after all, he was the older “wiser” of the group of men, right?

Sports teams are a sore spot for me. Not because I have a favorite one, instead it relates to the fighting, the betting, the poor treatment of the college players and what the professional players do to keep themselves going. In truth, it’s a hard life, it pays good money, but at what cost? Ok, that’s my soap box, now here’s why I bring this up. Sport attire, we wear it to support our favorite teams. Kendrick was no different, he wore his Chicago Cubs cap to the club and one of the three decided to be rude. I guess they decided to exercise their right to pick a fight. Because both parties were itching for trouble. Kendrick walked away, but not before telling the three he was going to “chop” them up.

Remember the gun, he’s got that assault weapon in the trunk of Dalton’s Monte Carlo. Did I mention that in the records, this model of Monte Carlo, it could be accessed through the back seat with a little modification? Readers, this made things so much more dangerous for the three college idiots that had provoked a snake in the grass with a stick. Kendrick putting that gun in the car made him a snake to look for trouble, and he was looking for trouble as far as the jury was concerned. You know the old expression “at the drop of a hat” well here was the hat…

Some people get an itch under the skin as if they have been embarrassed even if the real embarrassment hasn’t come yet, this was about to be the case with Kendrick. A short time later, without any real discussion Kendrick walks up to Palmer, extends his hand and asks, “We Cool.” Palmer, being younger, and full of fire, didn’t feel like this matter was resolved nearly like it should have been. Also, for the 19- and 20-year-old men they were so full of testosterone, they were ready to prove they were men. It was that hat making an appearance again, and I’m not talking about the one that started this whole mess. Palmer hit Kendrick on the mouth, knocked Kendrick to the floor and embarrassed him in front of a club full of people. Remember what I said about the big embarrassment, here it was in plain view of the club. I’m betting Kendrick got laughed at by a few of those people. Even if he didn’t, Kendrick had taken Ecstasy, what the hell was he really thinking? Kendrick told Dalton and Robertson he just wanted to leave.

Kendrick, Dalton, and Robertson found they had parked next to some fine-looking ladies in the parking lot. Outside they were chatting up a couple of ladies parked next to them. The ladies talked these young men into following them to the 7-11 not far from the club. Now it stands to reason at some point this was bound to turn into a bad idea for the young men with Kendrick. Here’s why. Kendrick was still itching under the skin about the embarrassment and anger he suffered at the night club. He hadn’t let it go. He was about to get his chance to get his revenge.

Kendrick saw Palmer pull into the parking lot of the 7-11. His buddies told him to “chill out”, Kendrick was not interested in listening, he was angry. Palmer had hit him in the mouth, right there in front of a room full of hip people, cool people, and there was his reputation to consider. This wasn’t going to be tolerated. Kendrick was in the mood for retaliation. A perfectly human response to humiliation, violence should not be, though sometimes it is. Which is why we should learn, or be taught by someone who loves us, at an early age to control our tempers. Kendrick needed a therapist at that moment, not a gun, but here we are in the real world.

Kendrick forgot the lessons he was taught in preschool. Don’t fight, don’t be mean to others, or maybe he didn’t go to preschool? There was always Sunday school, and he grew up in the south, I know he went to at least one Sunday school class. Too bad he didn’t get the ten commandments in there somewhere, at least. His friends tried to talk him out of his actions. They were not in the best position to do so, after all, the gun was not yet in play but it was available.

Dalton complied with Kendrick and they all climbed into the White Monte Carlo that belonged to Dalton. Remember, he’s the owner and the one at the wheel. This puts him in the position of one more time ending the situation, he could have driven away. But there was loyalty to his friend.

The two young men stuck with Kendrick in his pursuit of retaliation. They left the ladies at the pumps of the 7-11, they were going to meet back up a little later. With Kendrick in the passenger seat, Dalton at the wheel, after all it was his car, and with Robertson in the back seat, the chase was on. They followed Palmer and his friends down the street to I-44 up onto the highway. They followed closely. Kendrick ordered his friend, Robertson to reach through the back seat of the Monte Carlo and get the gun. As Dalton exited onto Pennsylvania Ave in Oklahoma City, they pulled up into the left lane coming to a stop next to the car Palmer and his friends were in. The windows were open. Kenderick fired into the open window with the rapid-fire weapon. The car lurched forward and jumped the curb; it hit an electric pole and fence before they came to a stop.

Palmer was driving and Jones, who was seated in the front passenger seat, both were hit with fatal injuries. Johnson managed to get down on the floorboard in the back of the car, where he had been seated when the gunfire happened. He received a minor gunshot wound as well, his was to the arm. I’m going based on court records.

Kendrick, after firing at the car said, “I’m a monster. I just shot the car up. They shouldn’t play with me like that.” This was testified to in court records. His own words used to call him something the was seen by the jury as, a Monster. He was a child throwing a tantrum and it turned deadly.

Now I know I’m sure at this point Dalton and Robertson weren’t feeling comfortable at all. Don’t get me wrong, they weren’t angels, but this wasn’t something they wanted to be a part of in the beginning. It didn’t stop Dalton and Robertson from going out on a date later that night either. Remember what I said about the little planned rondeaux. I’m just still trying to understand why they didn’t just keep him disarmed when they had him that way? Friends, I guess?

Afterall this following of cars and gunning down of young men, these three still found time to go out on a date. Remember the ladies they had been chatting up outside the nightclub? Those ladies were unaware of what had transpired. I’m sure when the three showed up in a different car they might have thought something was up, but the rest of that night turned out as did for the young men.

Both Dalton and Robertson testified against Kendrick in court in exchange for twenty-year prison sentences. This was proof they still weren’t in agreement with the retaliation Kendrick enacted. They weren’t angels, like I said, but they weren’t in agreement with the killing or the involvement. Kendrick Simpson is currently seated on death row in Oklahoma for his part in the drive by shooting.