A white police officer has been charged with first-degree manslaughter after she shot dead an unarmed black man.
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Shelby has been charged with first-degree manslaughter for shooting and killing 40-year-old Terence Crutcher. The video does not offer a clear view of what exactly happens next, but authorities said Shelby killed Crutcher with a single shot to the chest once he reached the driver seat-window of his SUV.
Shelby approached the vehicle and asked Crutcher if it belonged to him and was disabled, but Crutcher was mumbling to himself and not answering her questions, according to the affidavit.
Crutcher’s family lawyers have disputed that he reached inside his vehicle, saying video evidence shows the car’s windows were up and blood seen on the windows corroborates that the windows were rolled all the way up at the time of the shooting. There was no weapon found in his vehicle.
If convicted, she faces at least four years in prison, lawyers said.
The Mayor of Tulsa, Dewey Bartlett, is pleased with the amount of transparency the police department has provided by releasing the video footage.
“On Monday the Justice Department opened a civil rights investigation into the death of Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, Oklahoma”, she said. A private wake is also planned for Crutcher, who was fatally shot September 16 by Officer Betty Shelby.
Two separate videos, one from a helicopter and one from a dash cam, show Crutcher walking over to his auto with his hands up as the police approach.
Police cameras, including ones mounted in squad cars and in a helicopter, captured the Crutcher shooting on tape. He walks away from Shelby toward his auto. The man warned it was going to blow up, the caller said.
In the videos, the officers surround Crutcher and he suddenly drops to the ground. 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. According to the police, he was Tasered by officer Tyler Turnbough and shot by Shelby.
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But Kunzweiler, the Tulsa prosecutor, emphasized the city’s peaceful reaction in the aftermath of Crutcher’s shooting.
