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A Tulsa police spokesman, Jason Willingham, told The Associated Press that the men - 19-year-old Jake England and 32-year-old Alvin Watts - were arrested early Sunday at a house just north of Tulsa and that they would face three counts of first-degree murder and two counts of shooting with intent to kill.
Mr. Willingham told The A.P. that a tip had led police to the men.
Capt. Jonathan Brooks of the Tulsa police told CNN that investigators were still trying to find a motive behind the four apparently random shootings, which occurred early Friday.
All five victims were African-American, and the two men arrested were white, Captain Brooks said.
At a news conference on Saturday, the city's police chief, Chuck Jordan, said that the authorities had found no immediate evidence of a hate crime. "There's a very logical theory that would say that that's what it could be," Chief Jordan said. "But I'm a police officer. I've got to go by evidence."
The police do not believe that the victims knew one another, but the timing and proximity of the shootings on Tulsa's north side, all within miles of each other, have led them to believe the attacks are linked. The two injured victims were expected to survive, officials said.
Survivors had described the gunman as a single white man who was driving a white pickup truck with its tailpipe hanging, but Captain Jordan told CNN that the police believe both men were involved in the shootings.
A Tulsa councilman, Jack Henderson, however, seemed to suggest that race was a factor.
"You have somebody white who has come into a community and taken shots at, killing black people" Mr. Henderson, whose district includes all of the shooting sites, said Saturday in an interview with CNN. "To me, that would indicate that we have some kind of a racial problem."
Mr. Henderson said the suspect had been described as driving up to pedestrians and asking for directions.
"Then as they're walking away, this person opens fire," Mr. Henderson said, adding that apprehending the gunman was critical in restoring the city's shaken psyche.
"This is a crisis situation," he said. "A lot of people are afraid for their lives, afraid for their children, afraid for their loved ones. And if you can't walk outside or walk down the streets of the city that you live in, then that's definitely a problem."
According to The Tulsa World Crime Tracker, before these shootings, Tulsa had had 11 homicides since the beginning of the year.
Mayor Dewey F. Bartlett Jr. said the shootings were unlike anything the city had seen, "certainly in modern history."
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