In a graphic video that is very hard to watch, Tulsa police can be seen fatally shooting unarmed Oklahoma native Terence Crutcher, who was standing beside his vehicle with his hands raised.
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The U.S. Department of Justice has opened an investigation into the shooting to determine if a civil rights violation occurred as Tulsa Police Chief Chuck Jordan said Monday that no gun was found on Terence Crutcher or in his SUV according to Tulsa World.
Officer Shelby’s attorney, Scott Wood, told the Tulsa World that Shelby believed Crutcher was reaching for something inside his vehicle, and that he hadn’t been following her commands. Officer Betty Shelby, who has been with the force since 2011, fired her service weapon, and officer Tyler Turnbough, who was hired in 2009, deployed his Taser, police said.
The Justice Department has opened an investigation into the shooting.
She says he was a dedicated Christian: “The big bad dude was my twin brother”. “The officer who shot and killed Terence said he refused to show his hands”.
TPD also confirmed one of the officers in the helicopter that responded to the shooting was Shelby’s husband.
“There was no gun on the suspect or in the suspect’s vehicle”, Jordan said, adding, “The first time I watched it [the video], I watched it with [Crutcher’s] family”.
He died in later that evening at a local hospital.
Dashcam footage shows the 40-year-old, clad in a white t-shirt, walking with his hands up before being surrounded by officers.
“I will make this promise to you, we will achieve justice”, he said.
Tulsa police helicopter footage was among several clips showing the shooting of Crutcher and its aftermath. Crutcher said her family is devastated over Terence Crutcher’s death, and asks that protests against the shooting remain peaceful. An officer is seen with a weapon drawn before Crutcher drops to the ground, and a female officer can be heard on police radio saying: “shots fired”. He explained that it appeared that he was seeking help from the officers.
“As the Department of Justice investigates this case, we must confront the racism embedded so deeply in police practices and demand change now”, Brooks said. The incident was caught on dashcams from each officer as well as the police department’s helicopter camera.
Crutcher, 40, was killed Friday after police came across his vehicle stopped in the middle of 36th Street North near Lewis Avenue.
Rodney Goss, a pastor at the Morning Star Baptist Church in Tulsa, had viewed the footage on Sunday with the family, as it was released early to community leaders and his relatives.
Speaking Monday in Tulsa, civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump said Crutcher committed no crime and gave officers no reason to shoot him. We can rest a little easier as a nation now that one less depraved lunatic is off the street.
Outside the Tulsa County Courthouse, approximately two-dozen protesters held signs and photos of Crutcher, shouting chants such as “hands up, don’t shoot!”
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“So I guess it’s a crime now to be a big black man”, Crump said.
