On the night of May 16, 2011, Luke Thomas Asberry, an 18-year-old male from Oklahoma City, was riding through the northeast side of the city in a car with another teen, Cornelius Montroll Ogles. Sometime before midnight, gunfire ripped through the vehicle. When officers later arrived at the scene near North Bryant Avenue and Northeast 15th Street, around 11:40 p.m., they found the car stopped in a residential area, its two young occupants critically wounded from multiple gunshots.
Both were quickly pronounced dead, and the scene was marked off as a double homicide, leaving flashing patrol lights to illuminate the quiet neighborhood streets.
Investigators began piecing together what had happened inside and around that car, documenting the bullet damage and the positions of the victims as they tried to understand who had opened fire and why. The violence appeared sudden and targeted, but in the days and months that followed, answers proved elusive. Authorities classified Asberry's death as a homicide resulting from gunshot wounds, and despite interviews, leads, and community concern, the case remained unsolved. Public summaries of the investigation note that no suspects have been publicly identified and no arrests have been made in connection with the shooting, leaving the questions of motive and responsibility unresolved.
Beyond the crime scene tape and case files, Asberry's life is remembered in the details preserved by his family and community. Born on January 24, 1993, in Oklahoma City, he was the son of Empress Robinson and Luke Asberry II and a student at Douglass High School. Funeral and memorial records recall him as part of a close-knit family that included sisters and brothers, as well as grandparents who had watched him grow up and who later received messages of sympathy and remembrance.
In the aftermath of his death, loved ones gathered for services at a local funeral chapel, sharing memories of his kindness and the ordinary, everyday moments that now seemed precious: school days, family gatherings, time spent with relatives and friends. Online tributes speak in simple terms of grief and loss rather than details of the investigation, reflecting the way the homicide left a hole in the lives of those who knew him. Years later, public listings of unsolved cases in Oklahoma still include Luke Thomas Asberry's name, a reminder that the story of his final night remains incomplete and that the person or people responsible for the shooting have yet to be formally brought to justice.
