Members of Crutcher’s family, who saw the video before to it was released to the public, said the footage contradicts that claim.
Advertisement
“We wanted them to see it before it was released so they wouldn’t be blindsided by it”, Tuell told ABC.
Terence Crutcher, top, is pursued by police officers as he walks to an SUV in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The video clearly shows Crutcher with his hands up as the officers approached him and his vehicle.
His family has told the press that they are heartbroken and that Crutcher had been leaving a class at the community college when his auto broke down. He leans toward the SUV, places his hands on the vehicle, and then a shot can be heard.
Crutcher died in a hospital later that evening.
Police say Tulsa Officer Betty Shelby fired the fatal shot, while Officer Tyler Turnbough used a stun gun on Crutcher.
Helicopter view of the officer involved shooting of Terence Crutcher.
“I’ve got a subject that won’t show me his hands”, a female officer can be heard saying in the dispatch recording. “Might be on something”.
Marq Lewis from activist group We the People has already delivered a statement in front of the Tulsa County Courthouse addressing Crutcher’s death in the context of police brutality and systemic racism.
According to Tulsa police, the officers asked Crutcher to put his arms up. Officer Betty Shelby, who fired the gun, was placed on routine administrative leave. The incident was caught on dashcams from each officer as well as the police department’s helicopter camera. The disturbing footage – which initially shows Crutcher being approached by four officers while he stood with his hands in the air – has arrived in different incarnations on the local CBS affiliate station, on YouTube, and on the Twitter account of Shawn King (of the New York Daily News).
The FBI and the Department of Justice will hold separate investigations of the shooting.
U.S. Attorney Danny Williams stated that the Justice Dept. will be conducting an independent investigation, the Post reported.
Online court records show Terrence Crutcher of Tulsa with the same date of birth as the man who was killed pleaded no contest in 1996 to carrying a concealed weapon and resisting an officer and was given a six-month suspended sentence. That big bad dude was a son.
“It’s very hard to watch”, Tulsa Police Chief Chuck Jordan said Monday during a press conference.
The death is the latest in a long line of fatal shootings by officers of black men that have led to racial tensions across the States. “I want to assure our community and I want to assure all of you and people across the nation who are going to be looking at this: We will achieve justice ― period”. He moreover puts pressure on Officer Shelby’s background in emergency medical training, emphasizing that she had every ability to assist Crutcher, but did not.
Tiffany Crutcher and others have said police videos capture authorities referring to Terence Crutcher as a “big bad dude” before he was shot Friday night while officers responded to reports of a stalled vehicle. He says residents should respond with reason, not violence.
Advertisement
“We’re demanding today, immediately, that charges be pressed”, Tiffany Crutcher announces before an audience.
