VanAllen Dewayne Parson was 29 when he was killed in a barroom shooting in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, on the evening of December 13, 2021. The shooting at the Kickstand Saloon followed an argument that involved an inappropriate interaction between a customer and a woman at the bar; the customer, 51-year-old Gregory Lonnell Rogers of Tulsa, reportedly announced he was armed. Austin Standeford, 41, who was working at the establishment, was also shot. One of the men was pronounced dead en route to the hospital and the other died after arrival.

Witnesses said Parson, who had been helping with security, tried to de-escalate the situation and remove Rogers when Rogers produced a handgun and opened fire. Rogers sought medical attention for a forearm gunshot wound at a Tulsa hospital but initially left; he turned himself in to the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office the next day and was charged with two counts of first-degree murder. At trial Rogers said he fired in self-defense while being attacked and on the ground; the prosecution said he had come looking for trouble. A Washington County jury acquitted him of first-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter but convicted him of carrying a firearm into a place where alcohol is served.

Did anyone who knew VanAllen Parson or was at the Kickstand Saloon that night see how events started or what happened during the altercation?