Berry Russell Jr. has spoken publicly since his arrest, while the verified record still leaves key questions about the fatal encounter unresolved.
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — A month after Myron Cooper was fatally shot following a confrontation outside an Oklahoma City hotel, the man accused in his death resurfaced in a local newspaper interview, renewing attention on a case whose publicly available record still contains competing accounts, unanswered questions and even a disputed date entry.
The Black Chronicle published an Aug. 20 article promoting an exclusive interview with Berry Russell Jr., 54, under the headline “I Did Not Want to Kill That Man.” Most of the interview is available only to subscribers, so its detailed contents cannot be independently evaluated from the public page. The headline is nevertheless the newest substantive public reporting located in a review through Aug. 30 that directly attributes a statement about the killing to Russell. It comes after earlier court-document reporting in which Russell told investigators that he fired only after Cooper chased him and repeatedly struck him during a second encounter outside a hotel bar.
The later interview does not change what the official police record establishes. Oklahoma City police said Cooper, 43, reported that he had been shot around 11:30 p.m. and was found near Southeast 15th Street and Interstate 35 in critical condition. Detectives determined he had previously been involved in an altercation with Russell at 6101 N. Santa Fe Ave. Cooper was taken to a hospital and underwent surgery but died the next morning. Russell was located shortly after the shooting, interviewed and booked into the Oklahoma County Detention Center on a murder complaint, according to the department’s homicide bulletin.
Later reporting sharpened the accusation. Law&Crime said Russell stood accused of first-degree murder and reported that he was held on a $10 million bond. The city bulletin used the broader booking description of a murder complaint. Neither description should be treated as proof that Russell committed the charged offense. An accusation describes the government’s position at a stage of the criminal process; guilt requires an adjudication or a plea. The publicly accessible materials reviewed for this article do not provide a complete current docket from which every hearing, motion or later ruling can be independently established.
Even the date of the incident requires careful treatment. The police bulletin was transmitted on the afternoon of July 24 and says in its narrative that officers responded “last night.” Contemporary reports from KFOR, Law&Crime and Oklahoma City Free Press place the shooting late July 23, with Cooper dying after surgery the following morning. But the incident-data field in the same city notice lists July 24 at 11:32 p.m., which would be hours after the notice was issued. Nothing in the reviewed material explains that inconsistency. Rather than silently changing the government record, the discrepancy must be noted alongside the otherwise consistent July 23 chronology.
The location is less uncertain. Investigators tied the shooting to a hotel property on North Santa Fe Avenue, identified in reporting as the Broadway Inn & Suites OKC. Inside Sunni B’s Sports Bar and Grill, Russell had interacted with Cooper’s wife, according to court documents obtained by KFOR and reported by Law&Crime. A Facebook Live video reportedly showed Russell whispering into the woman’s ear, an exchange that was described as flirting. Cooper saw the interaction, authorities said, and later confronted Russell. The first physical fight occurred outside and was eventually stopped.
What Russell did after that first fight is one of the most consequential parts of the police account. Russell told investigators he returned to the bar and waited for Cooper to leave, saying he wanted to avoid another conflict. During the wait, however, he telephoned his wife and told her to “come right,” according to the reported court documents. Investigators interpreted the phrase to mean that Russell wanted her to bring him a gun. Police said she brought him the requested weapon. The public reporting reviewed here does not identify a criminal charge against Russell’s wife arising from that action, and no allegation beyond the documented police account is warranted.
The second encounter supplies Russell’s principal reported explanation for firing. According to his statement, Russell eventually believed Cooper was gone and headed back toward his car. Police say Cooper then pulled up near Russell’s vehicle. Russell told detectives he began running back toward the bar, that Cooper chased him and that Cooper repeatedly hit him in the back of the head. Russell said he pulled a pistol from his pocket and shot Cooper in the chest. That account may bear directly on any defense Russell advances, but it remains his description of the encounter rather than an established judicial finding.
The sequence also raises questions that the accessible reports do not answer. They do not provide a complete public account of all witnesses to the second encounter. They do not disclose the full contents of the Facebook Live recording or every statement investigators collected. They do not present a complete forensic reconstruction showing the exact positions and movements of both men before the shot. And they do not establish from an accessible court ruling how the weapon delivery or the interval between the confrontations will be treated legally. Those omissions are not evidence for either side; they are simply limits on what can be reported as verified fact.
After being wounded, Cooper did not remain at the hotel. Sgt. Dillon Quirk told KOKH that Cooper got into a vehicle, drove along the highway and stopped at several locations as police received calls asking them to check on him. He eventually reached Southeast 15th Street and Interstate 35. Oklahoma City Free Press reported that the shooting site was about seven miles from where authorities ultimately encountered Cooper. His movement across the city explains why the first police response occurred far from the parking lot that detectives later identified as the scene of the confrontation.
Cooper’s death was counted among Oklahoma City’s homicides during a violent period in late July. KOKH reported that police considered the case isolated and did not believe there was an ongoing threat to the public. The station also reported that the death was among several homicides within a span of days. Those circumstances supplied a broader public-safety backdrop to the investigation, but they do not alter the individual evidentiary issues in Russell’s case. Each homicide must be evaluated on its own facts, and the citywide count cannot establish whether Russell’s conduct met the elements of the offense alleged against him.
The case also illustrates the difference between facts confirmed directly by police and details emerging from secondary accounts of court documents. The city confirmed that Cooper was shot, hospitalized and later died; that detectives connected the shooting to an altercation with Russell; and that Russell was taken into custody. The more detailed account of the bar interaction, the phone call to Russell’s wife and Russell’s description of being pursued comes from reporting on court records. Those details are relevant and attributable, but they should not be collapsed into an undifferentiated narrative in which every allegation appears equally settled.
Russell’s August interview adds another layer but not a final answer. The Black Chronicle’s publicly visible headline presents him as saying he did not want to kill Cooper. Without access to the full article, it would be improper to infer what explanation he gave, how he described the weapon, whether he expanded on his earlier statement to police or what questions the newspaper asked him. His publicly reported assertion therefore remains alongside, rather than above, the evidence already described by investigators.
As of the latest material that could be independently reviewed through Aug. 30, the essential status is unchanged: Cooper is dead, Russell was arrested and accused in connection with the killing, and Russell has offered an account portraying the final encounter as one in which he was chased and hit before firing. The government’s evidence and Russell’s explanation have not been reconciled by a final publicly verified court judgment. Until that occurs, the unresolved portions of the case — intent, justification, the significance of the gun delivery and the precise sequence before the shot — remain questions for the criminal process rather than settled facts.
Author note: Last updated August 30, 2026.