Tulsa Police Frustrated DNA At Arrest Law Still Not Implemented

Police in Long Beach, California, arrested a Tulsa man for killing a woman and her 4-year-old daughter.

The suspect was identified by DNA because California law allows a sample to be taken at the time of an arrest.

As of November 1, Oklahoma also has a DNA at arrest law, but, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation says it doesn't have the money to process the samples because of the state's budget crisis, so it's a law in writing only at this point, which is frustrating to police.

9/7/2016 Related Story: OK Budget Crisis Making New DNA Testing Law Impossible To Take Effect

Brandon Colbert's Tulsa family called police in early August, worried about him because he had a shotgun, was getting on a bus in Tulsa, headed to Long Beach, California and talking about ISIS.

Police here warned police there, but no one found a connection. They even searched the Tulsa homes of his parents and grandmother but found no manifesto.

But, on August 6th, someone walked up to a woman and her little girl in Long Beach and shot them both at point-blank range with a shotgun.

Police were stumped - no witnesses, no suspects, no motives.

LA County deputies arrested Colbert in a stolen car after the murders, took his DNA and entered it into the system. DNA from the murder scene had also been entered and they got a hit - a case with no leads, solved quickly.

"That wouldn't happen here in Oklahoma,” said Tulsa police sergeant, Dave Walker. “If it was reversed, we'd probably have an unsolved murder on our hands."

After eight years of trying, Oklahoma passed the DNA at arrest law this year, but there's no money to make it anything more than words on paper.

Walker said, "I think if you got all the unsolved family members and missing persons together you would have quite a voice to say fund it."

Walker understands the budget crisis but believes the law could solve not only murders but other crimes too.