Police: 3 children shot as Oklahoma police fire at suspect

HUGO, Okla. — Three children were wounded in a police shooting Friday in Oklahoma when an officer fired at a man in a truck who was suspected of robbing a restaurant earlier in the month, according to state investigators.

Brook Arbeitman, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, said gunfire broke out when detectives with the Hugo Police Department in southeastern Oklahoma were trying to approach the suspect, 21-year-old William Devaughn Smith. She said Smith is suspected in an April 11 armed robbery at a Pizza Hut in Hugo, which is near the Texas state line.

The three injured children and a fourth child were all in the truck with Smith, Arbeitman said. The bureau initially said two children were shot but later learned a third child was also struck. Officials did not immediately release the names, ages or conditions of the children.

Smith was treated and released at a hospital in Paris, Texas, about 30 miles (48 kilometres) south of Hugo.