Officer Jeanne MacKenzie on Thursday identified Officer Michael Richert as the pilot of a Tulsa police helicopter that captured footage of the fatal police shooting of Terence Crutcher last week.
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Tulsa officer Betty Shelby fatally shot 40-year-old Terence Crutcher on September 16.
“We reviewed the facts of the allegations”. 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.
Chicago-based defense attorney Phil Turner says prosecutors – in his words – “must have thought charges were warranted and we can always upgrade the charge later”.
The attorneys also expressed gratitude to the Tulsa Police Department.
“This is a small victory”, Crutcher’s twin sister Tiffany told reporters.
Noting that he had contacted the U.S. Attorney’s Office about the case immediately after the shooting, Chief Jordan promised earlier this week, “We will achieve justice in this case”.
Crutcher’s SUV broke down, which was why he was approached by the police before he was killed.
“We know that nothing will bring Terence back”, he said.
If convicted, she faces a minimum of four years behind bars.
“Although she is charged, she is presumed innocent until a judge or jury determines otherwise”, Mr Kunzweiler said in announcing the charges.
CNN reached out to Scott Wood, the attorney for Shelby, but has not received a response. Shelby’s lawyer has said Crutcher was behaving erratically and did not obey police commands.
The case generated outrage – shortly before the Charlotte riots over another police-shooting death – after police released videos from a squad dashcam and a helicopter that was flying overhead.
In the video, the 40-year-old man is seen with his hands up and leaning against his auto. At that point, Shelby pulled out her weapon and followed him to the vehicle, ordering him to stop and drop to his knees. According to his family, his vehicle had broken down, but Betty’s attorney says that when approached by police he began acting unusual. No weapon was found on Crutcher and no weapon was found in his auto.
Even the Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, who has declared himself “the law and order candidate” and criticized the Black Lives Matter protest movement, said he was “very, very troubled” by the incident. The man warned that it was going to blow up, the caller said.
Shelby and other officers responded to a call to investigate a vehicle stopped in the middle of one of the city streets.
She stopped behind his auto, which was a block away. Paramedics performed CPR and loaded him in to an ambulance, but Crutcher later died.
Crutcher family attorney Melvin Hall said the affidavit shows that Shelby had cleared the vehicle of any threats before she tried to talk to Crutcher.
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“Today we can say without a shadow of a doubt that the system has worked for black lives”, said activist Marq Lewis, an organizer of the civil rights group We the People Oklahoma, which led the rally in front of City Hall.
