The troubled son who stabbed Oklahoma’s acting labor commissar to death in a restaurant this weekend has been charged with first-degree murder.
Mark Costello, 59, agreed to meet his 26-year-old progeny Christian for dinner at Braum’s of Oklahoma City at around 6:30 p.m on Sunday in an effort to defuse hostilities over a dispute the pair had earlier in the day.
Once seated, the two Costellos began arguing anew, however, at which time the younger grabbed a steak knife and stabbed his father in the back multiple times, inflicting mortal injuries in the sudden attack.
Witnesses said the stab victim stumbled from his table and “made his way around Braum’s seeking help,” a police spokesman told local reporters yesterday in a press conference. “He then went outside to the south of the restaurant and was confronted again.”
Christian Costello was taken into custody at the scene, and the state’s labor commissioner was rushed to a nearby hospital where the 59-year-old was later pronounced dead of his wounds.
“Our hearts ache as an agency for this tragic event and our department grieves for his family during this very difficult time," said Labor Department Chief of Staff, Jim Marshall about his boss’s brutal death.
Mark Costello was a prominent businessman and savvy politician much respected by his colleagues and constituents, despite a strong anti-union and pro child-labor stance. Said Oklahoma GOP chair, Randy Brogdon, “he is going to be sorely missed.”
Oklahoma’s republican senator James Lankford further described the slain labor-department head as “passionate about our nation, conservative fiscal principles and the people of our state,” adding Costello “was a friend, and, as we grieve, we will also pray for his family as they deal with this unbelievable tragedy.”
Investigators have not disclosed what the Costellos’ deadly dispute was about, but Christian Costello appears to have a lengthy criminal past, including arrests for indecent exposure, driving while intoxicated, and assaulting a cop.
All those charges, as well as the stabbing suspect’s family ties to the now-murdered politician Mark Costello, were strategically “swept under the rug,” according to unnamed sources who spoke with reporters for News9 and Heavy.com.
