Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett praised the police department for quickly providing evidence to District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler’s office.
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Fallin complimented Tulsa’s police chief, mayor, district attorney and citizens for helping to keep peace and order “during this hard time”. Sue’s guest is Michael Curry, President of the Boston Branch of the NAACP.
Dashcam and aerial footage of the shooting and its aftermath showed Crutcher walking away from Shelby with his arms in the air. Officer Turnbough then arrives and after Crutcher he reached in the driver’s side front window of his vehicle, he fired his Taser and Shelby fired one shot striking Crutcher in the lung, according to the affidavit.
The criminal complaint against Shelby said her “fear resulted in her unreasonable actions which led her to shooting” Crutcher, 40.
But Crutcher’s family immediately discounted that claim, saying the father of four posed no threat to the officers.
The chief investigator said in an affidavit that Shelby then approached the auto, “cleared the driver’s side front and then proceeded toward the passenger side of the vehicle”.
It remains unclear exactly why the officer fired her weapon. The police chief in Tulsa says Crutcher, a black man fatally shot by a white police officer responding to a stalled vehicle, had no weapon on him or in his SUV.
An attorney for Shelby has said the officer believed Crutcher was using the hallucinogenic drug PCP, and a police spokesman has confirmed the drug was found in Crutcher’s SUV.
Officer Shelby had been assigned to a domestic violence call Friday evening when she came upon Crutcher and his vehicle in the road, according to an affidavit requesting a warrant for Shelby’s arrest.
Police acknowledge that Mr Crutcher did not have a gun on him or in his vehicle.
Damario Solomon-Simmons, the attorney for Crutcher family, said it was “apparent” that Shelby had to be charged because “a crime had been committed”.
He was found guilty and sentenced to four years in prison.
“Our goal as a family is to ensure that this never happens to an innocent citizen”, she said, adding that she’s “humble” and “grateful” to the community for their support. “We’re going to break the chains of injustice”.
The Ida B. Wells Coalition Against Racism and Police Brutality in Kansas City captured a screenshot of Donald Ebert’s reply to an article about Terence Crutcher’s death in Tulsa last week.
“I appreciate their efforts as well as the District Attorney’s usual thorough evaluation of the rules of law for which we are all accountable”, Bartlett said in a written statement.
Tulsa Police Officer Betty Shelby was charged Thursday with first-degree manslaughter in Crutcher’s September 16 death. The man warned it was going to blow up, the caller said.
Crutcher’s family attorneys maintain that the window was up, pointing to the blood spattered on it when he was shot.
The officers surround Crutcher and he suddenly drops to the ground.
President Barack Obama says recent reports of unarmed African Americans being shot by police “should be a source of concern for all Americans”. The officers back away and Crutcher is left unattended on the street for about two minutes before an officer puts on medical gloves and begins to attend to him.
“The tragic circumstances surrounding the death of Terence Crutcher is on the hearts and mind of many people in this community”, Kunzweiler said.
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Kansas City police are trying to determine whether an officer posted on Facebook that the killing of an unarmed black man by a white Oklahoma police officer was a “good shoot”. Some demonstrators expressed disappointed Shelby wasn’t charged with first-degree murder, but others considered Thursday’s announcement a victory. Kevin Matthews, the chairman of the Oklahoma Legislative Black Caucus.
