Wounded officer at home now

Capt. Mike Murley was released from the hospital Thursday night to go home and was in good spirits, Police Chief David Crabtree said Friday morning.
Murley, senior detective for the Clinton Police Department, was shot once in each arm Thursday afternoon while trying to execute an arrest warrant for drug, theft and firearms suspect Alphonso Proa-Rios, 41. The officer was treated at the AllianceHealth Clinton hospital before being transferred via ground ambulance to the Trauma Center at the University of Oklahoma Medical Center in Oklahoma City.
Rios was scheduled to be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. Friday. He was arrested shortly after the shooting and was being held Friday morning in the Custer County Jail with his bond from a prior case that hadn’t been completed set at $220,000. Charges related to the shooting were still pending.
The arrest warrant Murley was trying to serve when he was shot was for possession of methamphetamine, possession of a firearm after former conviction of a felony, and knowingly concealing stolen property, plus a number of related misdemeanors. The warrant was issued after he failed to appear in court on Nov. 20. The original case was filed Feb. 1.
“He’s at home in good spirits,” Chief Crabtree said of his officer.
He said the suspect and the officer exchanged shots when Murley tried to make a traffic stop to serve the warrant. “The subject got out of his car and it started from there,” he said.
Crabtree declined to say anything further about the case while it’s being investigated by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
Sheriff Kenneth Tidwell did speak to media Thursday night. He said about 3 p.m. that day Murley was looking for the suspect in the vicinity of S. Third Street and Hayes Avenue when the subject came into the street and started firing at him.
“The detective was able to return fire. I don’t know how many shots were fired,” said Tidwell. “My understanding is the officer was able to empty his weapon.”
OSBI spokesperson Jessica Brown said Friday that Proa-Rios was not hit, and she did not know what caliber of weapon he was allegedly using.
She also didn’t know how many shots were fired. A woman who evidently lived very near the shooting site told the Clinton Daily News she heard 10 or 11 shots.
“I was in the kitchen,” said the woman, who identified herself as Patricia Carter. “I went on to the kitchen, and that’s where I heard it. I asked him if he was alright, and he said he’d been shot.”
Murley’s wounds were both from through-and-through shots, said Tidwell, meaning the bullets entered and exited his arms at the scene.
An Oklahoma City television reporter wanted to know if the shooter knew the detective.
“Yes, law enforcement’s familiar with the subject,” said Tidwell, adding that both men recognized the other. He indicated Murley had been driving down the street before the gunfire started, but he (Tidwell) didn’t know if he was inside or outside his vehicle when the first shot was fired.
“It’s my belief Rios knew the detective was looking for him and saw him (Murley) driving down the street and engaged him,” said Tidwell.
Asked his personal feelings, the sheriff said, “When the call came, my heart dropped because I’ve been here 23 years and had known Detective Murley all that time. I had worked side by side with Detective Murley. All the surrounding agencies were familiar with him. We’re a very close-knit group. It’s terrible when somebody you know is shot in the line of duty.”
Tidwell was asked if he thinks lawmen are in more danger today than formerly. After pausing for a moment, he replied, “I do think the climate has changed toward law enforcement. More people out there are willing to take us on.”
The shooting came approximately three weeks after Murley completed his 25th year with the CPD. He was hired Nov. 13, 1992, by the late Bill Weedon, who was chief at the time.
In 2004 he was named head of the Criminal Investigation Division.
“He’s assisted and been instrumental in putting a lot of the criminals around here in jail,” Chief Crabtree said a year ago in a story about his senior detective starting his 25th year with the department. “He’s taken a lot off the streets. He’s a very welcome and great asset to our department and the community.”
In that story Murley took great pride in knowing that every homicide case occurring in the Clinton department’s jurisdiction since his hiring had been solved. But he gave much of the credit to his fellow officers.
“The officers we’ve had in the past and the ones we have now have done a really good job,” he was quoted as saying.
Chief Crabtree said he was proud of the way his men responded after Thursday’s shooting, as well as the actions of other departments and agencies.
“I’m extremely proud of our department, the way we handled it, and the Highway Patrol and the Sheriff’s Department,” he said.
“Also the firemen, who were rendering aid pretty quickly. I’m extremely proud of all our people.”
The location, just north of the Bar-S Foods parking lot, was just a couple of blocks from the Clinton Fire Station.
Murley and his wife, Kridea, are parents of three sons.