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Inola volleyball outing turns frightening after gas station incident

INOLA, Okla. – An Inola father is voicing concerns for his daughter's safety after she came home from a volleyball tournament with a horrific story.

“It's every parent's nightmare to see your child on the phone and you're helpless in that situation,” Matthew said.

This nightmare became Matthew's reality.

Out of consideration for his family's safety, we are only using his first name.

His daughter was on her way home from a game when the team made a pit stop at a QuickTrip in Catoosa.

Then a man they didn't know approached the bus and focused entirely on his daughter.

“He tells her she's special, taps her on the shoulder and follows her around the store, follows her to the bus,” he said. “He's a grown man, you know, you don't talk to children like that. It’s ridiculous.”

Her trainer was still in the store at the time of the interaction.

Matthew's daughter told him that things escalated when they tried to ignore the man.

“He's knocking on the doors and they're closing the doors and the girls are screaming at him and telling him to go away, but he won't go away,” he said. “When he finally walks away, he gets into his vehicle and it parks right next to the school bus and shows the girls a gun.”

The Rogers County Sheriff's Office, Tulsa Police Department and Collinsville Police Department were all involved in the investigation.

Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton said since the incident occurred at a QuickTrip, they need to look at surveillance videos to better determine what happened.

“The main thing we want to do is find out who this person is and prevent something like this from happening again,” Walton said. “We have enough information to put a piece together, it only takes a minute to complete.”

As a father, Matthew believes the school should have done more to protect his child and the rest of the team.

“There has to be some kind of protocol. I can think of a hundred things that could have been done differently, it was like everything was handled in the worst possible way.”

Instead of hearing from the coach or administration, Matthew had to contact the school to see how they were handling things.

“If he had contacted me, I would have felt 100% better,” he said. “If he had contacted the police I would have felt better. If something like that had happened, but none of it happened. And I’m really worried that this is okay?”

Inola High School held a meeting to provide parents with information and answer questions.

The school did not want to speak on camera, but gave us a statement:

This morning, Inola Public Schools was made aware of an incident involving a customer at a supermarket in Catoosa and the Inola volleyball team. The incident occurred on Monday evening around 9:30 am. The customer harassed members of the store team. As the harassment increased, the players left the store and walked to the bus. The individual followed the student-athletes to the bus and continued to harass the girls until he got into his vehicle and left. Multiple law enforcement agencies were contacted and were extremely helpful. I would like to thank the Catoosa Police Department and the Rogers County Sheriff's Office for their diligent efforts to ensure the safety of our students. We contacted the team's parents early this morning to let them know there had been an incident and we will share the information as it becomes available. While there was speculation that a weapon was present and a volleyball player was touched inappropriately, these have not been confirmed or seen through surveillance video. As this is an ongoing police investigation, we are unfortunately unable to comment further at this time.

Walton said the school and QuickTrip are cooperating in the investigation.

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