Three Arrested, One Shot In Reported Rogers County Sasquatch Hunt

Rogers County Sheriff's Department arrested three people in what appears to be an accidental shooting. One of the men told deputies he'd shot his friend while the two were on a Sasquatch hunting expedition.

"If [they] had just been factual, upfront and truthful with us and explained that this was truly an accident, as strange as it might sound, we would have went ahead and investigated and probably nobody would have [gone] to jail," Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton said.

The two men were hunting - apparently for Bigfoot - around 177th East Avenue and Tiger Switch Road Saturday night. Omar Pineda reportedly heard a "barking noise," jerked and shot his friend in the back, authorities say.

"When you start off with an explanation like that, do you believe anything after that?" Walton said Sunday morning.

The men met emergency responders at a QuikTrip near Interstate 44 and 161st Street. The wounded man is expected to survive.

Pineda, 21, was arrested for reckless conduct with a firearm and obstruction.

Deputies also arrested Perry Don James, Pineda's father-in-law. James threw his son-in-law's gun in a pond on the property because he is a convicted felon and was afraid to have the gun on his property, Walton said.

James, 53, was booked on complaints of felon in possession of a firearm and destruction of evidence.

The shooting victim was also carrying a gun, though he dropped it when he got shot, according to a news release. Dive teams spent much of the day looking for a gun tossed in the pond.

"The aggravating part of this whole deal is that their dishonesty wasted several man hours of not only the Rogers County Sheriff's Office, but our partners at the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office," Walton said.

Deputies arrested 22-year-old Lacey Jane Pineda, Omar's wife, for obstruction because she told police at one point that someone else had shot at her husband and his friend, according to RCSO.

"To our knowledge, no Bigfoot sightings in Rogers County," Walton said. "I think our focus is career criminals and thugs, and we're going to stay focused on that and let somebody else go after Bigfoot."