A Pat on the Back to...Officer Nick Yoakum

Muldrow Police Officer Nick Yoakum likes being a police officer and has served in law enforcement ever since he graduated from high school.

He began with the U.S. Air Force where he served from 1997 to 2011, including a tour in the Middle East in Qatar, and now has been with the Muldrow Police Department for two and a half years.

Yoakum said he enjoys criminal investigation the most, but his abilities on Jan. 24 were more lifesaving than investigating, and more than likely saved the life of an elderly gentleman.

Yoakum explained that on that evening he had been listening to police radio chatter about the Sequoyah County Sheriff’s Deputies’ search for an older man for whom a Silver Alert had been issued by Edmond police. The man’s family lived in Edmond, and he had disappeared from there on Jan. 23.

“It was reported that at the 306 Mile Marker (on Interstate 40) an elderly gentleman had parked, got out and was wandering around,” Yoakum said. “But they couldn’t find him.

“About that time I saw a blue Buick with a Wyoming tag. I stopped the car and it was him.”

Yoakum found the man at about midnight on Jan. 24.

Yoakum learned the 91-year-old man, Leo Williams, had been visiting his family in Edmond and decided to go looking for a motel.

“He didn’t know he had driven that far away,” Yoakum said. “His family came and got him the next day.”

Yoakum is modest about his recovery of Williams, and credits his observation skills developed over the years as a police officer for the recovery. In fact his concern was more for the 91-year-old, who, he learned, suffered from Alzheimer’s.

“He had some interesting stories to tell,” Yoakum recalled. “He was a biologist, and had worked at Yellowstone National Park. He sat and talked for three or four hours.”

Born and raised in Muldrow, Yoakum and his younger brother, Lance, are both police officers. Lance Yoakum is with the Sallisaw Police Department. 

During his 15 years in the U.S. Air Force Nick Yoakum said his duties included law enforcement and security, especially when he was in Qatar.

“It was calm while we were there,” he recalled. “And we all made it back. We were the foot soldiers of the Air Force.”

Now Yoakum said he is glad to be back in Muldrow, doing what he likes best - being a cop.

“I’m just enjoying being a cop,” he concluded. “I like just being a cop.”

Sally Maxwell, Senior News Director

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