Alleged Getaway Driver in Fatal Burglary: 'I Don't Blame Him'

Elizabeth Marie Rodriguez on man who shot and killed 3 suspects
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 31, 2017 11:53 AM CDT
Alleged Getaway Driver in Fatal Burglary: 'I Don't Blame Him'
Elizabeth Marie Rodriguez   (Wagoner County Sheriff's Office)

Elizabeth Marie Rodriguez says she knows that a home burglary she's accused of taking part in earlier this week was "stupid" and "wrong"—and she doesn't blame a 23-year-old Oklahoma man for killing three of her alleged partners at the scene of that crime, ABC News reports. The 21-year-old is accused of being the getaway driver for the Broken Arrow break-in on Monday, which resulted in the deaths of 19-year-old Maxwell Cook, 17-year-old Jacob Redfearn (spelled Redfern in some reports), and 16-year-old Jaykob Woodruff. The shooter: Zachary Peters, the son of the homeowner who opened fire on the three teens with an AR-15 rifle. He has not been charged, and authorities say his actions may fall under the state's "stand your ground" law.

Heavy.com has audio of the 911 call Peters made after he turned his gun on the suspects. "I shot two of them and now I'm barricaded in my bedroom," he says. "You need to get here now." Rodriguez, who fled the scene but later turned herself in, says that she was the one who picked which house to burglarize and that she gets why Peters had to use his weapon. "I don't blame him. ... I understand why he did what he did … to an extent," she told ABC from jail. A friend of the four suspects says Rodriguez—who Wagoner County Deputy Nick Mahoney said chose Peters' home because she thought it would have cash and other pricey items, per the Tulsa World—called him in a panic after the shooting, saying she'd thought the home would be empty and "freaked out" and sped away after she heard gunshots inside. (More Oklahoma stories.)

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