On the night of September 29, 1990, 27-year-old Oklahoma City police officer Delmar Warren Tooman was killed while responding to a silent alarm at a Long John Silver’s Seafood Shoppe on South Meridian Avenue. Officer Tooman was ambushed and fatally shot in the head and chest as he tried to intervene in an armed robbery.

Authorities identified the shooter as Carl Elizabeth Whelan, a parole violator with a violent criminal history that reportedly included murder, child molestation, and armed robbery. Fingerprints and witness testimony linked Whelan to the restaurant attack and to another robbery earlier that evening. Officer Barry Lanzner shot and wounded Whelan as he attempted to flee; Whelan survived and was hospitalized in serious condition. The Oklahoma County District Attorney charged Whelan with first-degree murder, kidnapping, and armed robbery and announced plans to seek the death penalty.

While awaiting his preliminary hearing, Whelan died by suicide in his jail cell. Officer Lanzner was cleared of wrongdoing in the shooting of Whelan. If anyone was in or near the restaurant that night or has information about the robberies, please come forward.