PropertyValue
?:author
?:datePublished
  • 2012-04-03 (xsd:date)
?:headline
  • Did Tyrone Woodfork Beat an Elderly Oklahoma Couple? (en)
?:inLanguage
?:itemReviewed
?:mentions
?:reviewBody
  • In July 2020, social media users began circulating a meme about black kid named Tyrone Woodfork who severely beat an elderly couple, a Mr. & Mrs. Strait, who had been married for 65 years, along with the claim that no national media carried the story of the crime: The meme was based on a real incident, but it included no information informing readers that the events it described had taken place eight years earlier and were not a recent occurrence. Bob and Nancy Strait (90 and 85 years old, respectively) were a North Tulsa, Oklahoma, couple whom family members described as follows to local television station KOTV: In April 2012, a message was widely circulated online claiming that the Straits had been beaten to a pulp in [a] home invasion by colored offenders, and only press outside the U.S. covered the story: On 14 March 2012, Nancy and Bob Strait were indeed robbed and beaten at their home. Nancy Strait was sexually assaulted and died of her injuries the following day; Bob Strait was shot in the face with his own BB gun, suffered a broken jaw and cracked ribs, and died a few monts later, on 4 May 2012. Their assailants reportedly made off with the Straits' television, $200, a BB gun, and the couple's Dodge Neon. Tulsa police made an arrest the afternoon following the robbery after being tipped off to the location of the couple's stolen car: Tyrone Woodfork was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Nancy Strait as well as burglary, assault with a dangerous weapon and two counts of armed robbery. The 22-year-old was convicted in May 2014 and sentenced to consecutive life sentences on separate counts of felony murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and two counts of first-degree rape in the March 2012 attack of Bob and Nancy Strait. Although the robbery and beating of the Straits was reported in the Daily Mail, U.S. coverage of the crime was primarily limited to local (i.e., Tulsa area) news media. This is not evidence of some type of bias or cover-up on the part of the U.S. news media, however, because violent crimes are unfortunately an all too common occurrence in the United States, and nothing about this particular incident was comparatively unusual or shocking enough to propel it out of local coverage and into the national news. (en)
?:reviewRating
rdf:type
?:url