One of Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler’s daughters was arrested Tuesday evening on allegations that she stabbed him at his south Tulsa home that afternoon.
Kunzweiler
A statement from his office says the district attorney was stabbed “more than once by an adult family member.”
Kunzweiler issued a statement Tuesday evening, saying that, “unfortunately today, I found myself in a situation that I hoped would never happen. Fortunately, my injuries are such that I was able to go home.”
Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin said in a tweet earlier Tuesday evening that Jennifer Kunzweiler, the prosecutor’s daughter, had been arrested in connection with the stabbing.
Tulsa Police Capt. Richard Meulenberg said at the scene that the assailant also was injured and was taken by ambulance to a hospital. He did not identify the suspect at that time.
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Meulenberg said police were called to respond to a domestic disturbance at the district attorney’s house about 3 p.m. and were investigating the stabbing as a mental health incident.
“The entire Kunzweiler family would appreciate your prayers and concerns as they go through this struggle,” the Tuesday afternoon statement from the District Attorney’s Office says.
In Kunzweiler’s own statement that evening, he thanked “everyone who expressed concern for me and my family,” as well as responders with the Tulsa Fire Department, EMSA, the Tulsa Police Department and the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office and the staff and doctors at Saint Francis Hospital.
Kunzweiler, 60, was elected to office in 2014 and took office in January 2015. He is running unopposed for reelection. He and his wife have three daughters, according to his campaign website.
Steve Kunzweiler and one of his daughters, Jenny Kunzweiler, talk during his watch party in the Republican runoff in his bid for the Tulsa County district attorney’s seat on Aug. 26, 2014. He was elected to the seat later that year and took office in January 2015.
Police Chief Wendell Franklin tweeted Tuesday afternoon that the Tulsa Police Department, which works closely with the Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office, “will work this case like all other cases.”
Kunzweiler’s stabbing is not the first such attack on an elected official by a family member in Oklahoma or even in Tulsa.
It comes about 3½ years after District Judge Sharon Holmes, who also works at the Tulsa County Courthouse, was wounded in a stabbing by her adult daughter. Court records state that the daughter pleaded guilty to assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in drug court in 2020.
Mark Costello, who was the state labor commissioner at the time, was stabbed to death by his adult son outside a Braum’s in Oklahoma City on Aug. 23, 2015. His son, Christian Costello, was found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity in 2018.