OK Cop Sentenced to 25 Years for Murdering Jeremey Lake: Upon Discovering His Daughter was Dating a Teen who Had Black Skin, White Cop Used Police Data to Track Him Down and Then Shot Him to Death

From [HERE] Oklahoma police officer was sentenced Friday to 25 years in prison for the 2014 killing of his daughter's boyfriend after being convicted of second-degree murder the fifth time he went on trial in the case.

U.S. District Judge Gregory Frizzell sentenced Shannon Kepler, 61, to 300 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. He also ordered Kepler, a former Tulsa police officer, to pay restitution to cover the cost of a headstone for Jeremey Lake, who was 19 years old when Kepler killed him.

“Nineteen-year-old Jeremey Lake died almost immediately after Shannon Kepler gunned him down in the street in 2014,” said U.S. Attorney Clint Johnson. “Kepler, at the time, was sworn to uphold the law but instead made a series of decisions that led to the young man’s murder. Today’s 25-year sentence provides a measure of justice to Mr. Lake’s family, though I know their healing continues. It also serves as a reminder that the U.S. Attorney’s Office and our law enforcement partners will hold individuals accountable for acts of violence in our community.”

A federal jury convicted Kepler in April 2021 for killing Lake. According to the DOJ:

A week prior to Lake’s 2014 murder, Kepler dropped off his 18-year-old daughter at a homeless shelter with no extra clothing, no money, and no cell phone. He later logged into his daughter’s Facebook account while he was at work and saw that she had newly changed her status to being “in a relationship” with Jeremey Lake. Kepler then used police databases to gather information on Lake and printed off police reports about the victim. The day of the crime, Kepler put on dark clothing, used his wife’s dark SUV, then travelled after dark to Lake’s last known address with a loaded revolver in the waistband of his pants.

After seeing Lake and Lisa Kepler around 9 pm, Kepler approached Lake and shot him in the street on North Maybelle Avenue, near downtown Tulsa. After shooting the victim twice through the chest, he turned and fired in the direction of his own daughter, the victim’s brother, and a third witness to the killing. Lake died at the scene.

At the time of the murder, Kepler was a 24-year veteran of the Tulsa Police Department.

Kepler testified at his trial that he fired in self-defense because he thought Lake had pointed a handgun at him. No gun was found at the scene.