On a May morning in 2020, the life of John Robert Atkinson, a 44-year-old male, came to a sudden and violent end. The fatal encounter occurred on May 27th at a legal marijuana farm located in a former bar north of Cushing, Oklahoma, a place where Atkinson was employed.
Authorities were alerted to the situation by a distressed phone call from Ragina Louise Armstrong, Atkinson's 51-year-old ex-girlfriend.
Armstrong, an investor in the cannabis business, informed the dispatcher that she had shot Atkinson in the head. Law enforcement arrived to find Atkinson deceased at the scene from a wound inflicted by a 9 mm semi-automatic firearm. Armstrong immediately claimed that her actions were in self-defense.
The investigation that followed, led by the Payne County Sheriff's Office with assistance from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, revealed a tumultuous history between the couple. They had been in an intermittent relationship for the previous two years and had been living together until Armstrong recently asked Atkinson to move out. On the day of the shooting, no one else was present at the business.
Ragina Louise Armstrong was taken into custody at the scene on a homicide complaint. She was described as being cooperative with the investigators. After being held overnight, Armstrong was released the following day. The District Attorney's office determined that, at that point, there was insufficient evidence to file formal criminal charges. The investigation was to continue, pending the results of an autopsy.
