Charles Gordon, a 24-year-old African-American man, was driving through northwest Oklahoma City on the night of March 20, 2012, when what began as an ordinary trip turned into a deadly encounter. It was around 9:30 p.m. as he traveled southbound along the Broadway Extension, near the stretch between Britton Road and Wilshire Boulevard, with 33-year-old passenger Dewon Thomas riding with him.
Traffic moved along the busy corridor that links the northern part of the city to downtown, headlights tracing lines of light through the darkness while their vehicle headed toward the city's core.
Without warning, another vehicle pulled up alongside them on the highway. Investigators later said that someone in that second car opened fire, sending rounds into Gordon's vehicle as the two men drove at speed down the roadway. Bullets tore into the car, and in the chaos of the attack, the southbound lanes of the Broadway Extension became the scene of a moving ambush, with Gordon and Thomas suddenly forced to fight for their lives while still trying to stay in control of the vehicle. Somehow, despite their injuries and the shock of the gunfire, they managed to leave the highway and make it to a convenience store in the 100 block of Northwest 63rd Street, a spot of harsh fluorescent light at the edge of the night.
When officers arrived at the store, they found the aftermath of the shooting: a car that had been turned into a target and two victims who had tried desperately to reach help in time. Charles Gordon was pronounced dead at the scene, his wounds too severe to survive, while Dewon Thomas was rushed from the location to a hospital, where he was treated for his injuries and survived. Police shut down the Broadway Extension for several hours while they searched for evidence, combing the roadway to piece together how the attackers had approached, where the shots came from, and what fragments of shell casings or debris might point them toward whoever had fired into the car.
In the days that followed, investigators publicly described the basic outline of the crime: two men traveling together, an unknown vehicle pulling up beside them, shots fired on a major Oklahoma City highway, and a frantic drive to a nearby store that ended with one man dead and another wounded. But none of the contemporary reports named a suspect or even provided a detailed description of the shooters' vehicle beyond the fact that it had come alongside Gordon's car before the gunfire erupted. Years later, online homicide archives that document unsolved killings in Oklahoma continue to recount the case in the same stark terms, with no mention of any arrests or identified suspects in connection with the attack on Gordon and Thomas. The available public record reflects a crime that shattered a life on a busy stretch of roadway and left a lingering void where answers should be, with the people responsible for the ambush still not publicly known.
