A welfare check on a 70-year-old White male, Harold Thompson, spiraled into a 17-hour police standoff at a home on Old Mills Road in Tecumseh, Oklahoma, on Monday, October 13, 2025. Family members had reported Thompson missing, and when Pottawatomie County Sheriff's deputies arrived at the residence he shared with his son to conduct a welfare check, the son ran inside and barricaded himself.
The situation grew tense as the son displayed a firearm through a window.
This was not the first time authorities had been called to the home regarding the son's behavior. Court documents revealed that deputies had responded to a suicidal threat in May, during which the son allegedly threatened to kill himself and his father. He had made delusional statements at that time, claiming his father was an imposter. Following that incident, he was taken for a mental health evaluation.
After the lengthy standoff, a tactical team deployed tear gas and entered the residence, where they found Harold Thompson deceased inside. The preliminary findings from the medical examiner indicated that he had been shot once in the head and once in the shoulder from behind. The state of the body suggested that he had been dead for several days.
Following the discovery, Harold Thompson's son, John Thompson, and a woman, Katelynn Cowett, who was also inside the home, were arrested. Both were charged with first-degree murder. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation is assisting with the homicide investigation.
