Tulsa District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler announced Thursday afternoon that Police Officer Betty Shelby will be charged with first-degree manslaughter, a felony, in the shooting of Terence Crutcher.
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Court papers filed by Tulsa County said Officer Betty Shelby escalated the situation and over-reacted in shooting Terence Crutcher, 40.
Dashcam and aerial footage of the shooting and its aftermath showed Crutcher walking away from Shelby with his arms in the air.
Officers had discovered Crutcher and his stalled SUV in the middle of a road, police spokeswoman Jeanne MacKenzie said on Saturday. Tulsa police said Crutcher was not complying with their demands when he was shot, but the video seemed to show a totally different story.
Shelby faces between four years and life in prison if convicted.
However, Ortiz posts a video on Facebook, linking to his Vimeo page, that he says shows Crutcher put his hands down just seconds prior to the shooting with the intention of reaching inside his vehicle via the driver’s side window.
Crutcher was wearing “baggy clothes” but that Shelby “was not able to see any weapons or bulges indicating a weapon was present”, the affidavit states. Police did find PCP in the vehicle which might explain Crutcher’s silence and refusal to obey verbal commands.
“We will continue to be transparent and ensure the system carries out its responsibility to provide justice”.
Shelby, who joined the Tulsa Police Department in December 2011, was en route to a domestic violence call when she encountered Crutcher’s vehicle abandoned on a city street, straddling the centre line.
Tulsa homicide Sgt. Dave Walker declined to say where the drug was found in the vehicle or if investigators had confirmed whether Crutcher was intoxicated during his interaction with police.
The mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma, is commending police and prosecutors for their quick handling of the investigation into the death of an unarmed black man who was fatally shot by a white police officer.
The officers surround Crutcher and he suddenly drops to the ground.
Shelby, he said, had already checked the driver’s side of the SUV when Crutcher approached her from the east.
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Benjamin Crump, an attorney representing the Crutcher family, said reports linking Crutcher to drugs were an attempt to “intellectually justify” Crutcher’s death.
