An Oklahoma man has been arrested on suspicion of throwing a woman off the fourth-floor balcony of an apartment building.
Saturday, March 18 at 4:30 a.m., Tulsa police began receiving 911 calls about a woman who had fallen into the courtyard of the Hewgley Terrace Apartments, an apartment complex near South Houston Avenue and West Seventh Street.
According to a press release from the Tulsa Police Department, the woman was discovered on the ground by firefighters who arrived first. The department’s officers arrived several minutes later.
The unidentified woman suffered multiple broken bones as a result of her fall. First responders rushed her to a nearby hospital, where her condition was described as critical.
The incident was neither a suicide attempt or an accident, but a deliberate act by a man who threw the woman off the building.
The incident was captured on surveillance video, which revealed a man carrying a woman wrapped in a blanket out of an apartment and toward the fourth-floor common area.
According to police, the woman appeared unresponsive as she was being transported.
No one was in the common area at the time because it was so early in the morning, but surveillance footage showed a man carrying a woman to a balcony’s edge.
The man, later identified by police as Richard Wallace, then threw her from the balcony, causing her to fall to the ground below.
The suspect then left the balcony quickly and returned to the apartment. According to the press release, Wallace initially refused to leave his apartment; however, after a brief standoff with police, he eventually opened the door and cooperated.
Wallace was arrested on suspicion of assault and battery with serious bodily injury.
According to police records, the suspect was taken to the Tulsa County Jail and was arraigned on March 24.