While the police dept. works on the script that officials will recite over the next month as they attempt to justify being trigger happy murderers, Crutcher’s sister is demanding that prosecutors charge the officer who shot him. Crutcher, an unarmed black man was killed by a white Oklahoma officer Friday, Sept. 16, 2016, who was responding to a stalled vehicle.
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Terence Crutcher was remembered Saturday evening at Antioch Baptist Church.
Shelby has been charged with first degree manslaughter and turned herself in Friday. She is free on bond and faces at least four years in prison if convicted.
One of the speakers at the funeral was Crutcher family attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons.
Tulsa police released two videos on Monday, one taken from a helicopter and the other from a dashboard camera in a patrol vehicle, that show Crutcher, a Tulsa Community College student, holding his hands in the air shortly before he was shot in the chest.
While many are grieving, they said are also hoping this funeral continues to spark protest and conversations about ways to make the community and police relations better. The funeral service came one day after Betty Shelby, the 42-year-old Tulsa police officer who shot Crutcher on September 16, was booked on a first degree manslaughter charge.
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“I kind of feel like the Tulsa government, and Tulsa police in particular, have handled this whole situation very well”, demonstrator Richard Lynch said.
