When it comes to charging an officer, legal experts say, the most important determination isn’t whether the officer was actually in danger in hindsight.
Advertisement
Prosecutors in Tulsa, Oklahoma, have filed first-degree manslaughter charges against the white police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black man on a city street.
After a few seconds, Crutcher lowers his arms, apparently to retrieve something from inside his vehicle through the driver’s side window, and at that moment Shelby shoots him and he collapses onto the pavement.
“We reviewed the facts of the allegations”. It was not clear when she would turn herself in.
The affidavit says Shelby told police homicide investigators that “she was in fear for her life and thought Mr. Crutcher was going to kill her”. She is accused of “unlawfully and unnecessarily” shooting Crutcher after he did not comply with her “lawful orders”.
Attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons said: “We are happy that charges were brought, but let me clear – the family wants and deserves full justice”.
Mr Crutcher’s twin sister, Tiffany Crutcher, said her family welcomed the charge.
“The chain breaks here”. “We know the history”.
If convicted, she faces at least four years in prison, lawyers said.
She urged people to remain patient as the case goes forward.
Kunzweiler held a press conference this afternoon to detail his decision to charge Shelby, who is white. Shelby was also concerned about Crutcher repeatedly reaching toward his pockets because a person with a weapon often touches it to make sure it’s still there, Wood said. Shelby found Crutcher and his vehicle in the middle of the road.
In this image taken from video, The Rev. Al Sharpton, center, speaks to the media at the National Action Center in New York, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2016 about the shooting death of Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Friday, Sept. 16, 2016. He walks away from Shelby towards his auto. No weapon was found at the scene, and it was later revealed that the window was actually up. The man warned that it was going to blow up, the caller said.
The first officer near her deployed a Taser on Crutcher, who was at that time, standing facing his vehicle.
She stopped behind his vehicle, which was a block away.
On the other hand, Shelby’s attorney said Crutcher was not following police commands, and that she fired when he began to reach into his vehicle window. Shelby did not activate her patrol car’s dashboard camera, so no footage exists of what first happened between the two before other officers arrived.
Advertisement
Phil Turner, a Chicago-based defense attorney and former federal prosecutor, says that in acting quickly, prosecutors may partly have wanted to allay outrage in the city and avoid the kind of violent protests Charlotte, North Carolina, has seen over another recent police shooting of a black man.
