“Many people may want to have an outcome within a hair’s breadth, but it’s my responsibility to make sure that the facts fit the law, and I will do that”.
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He never was able to follow through on that promise.
At a press conference on Monday, Terence Crutcher’s twin sister, Tiffany Crutcher, said that “negligence, and the incompetency, and insensitivity” led to her brother’s death.
‘That big bad dude was at church singing with all of his flaws, every week.
Tulsa, Oklahoma, police were responding to reports on Friday of an abandoned vehicle running with its doors open.
In the clip, the 40-year-old can be seen walking towards his silver vehicle as four officers surround him, on Friday (September 16) in Tulsa, Oklahoma, US. Authorities refused to immediately answer additional questions due to the ongoing investigation.
Crutcher’s family is demanding to know what happened and asks for charges to be filed against Shelby.
Shelby’s dash cam was never activated because she never turned on her top lights and sirens, so there is no video footage showing the two minutes that Shelby first arrived to the scene and interacted with Crutcher.
Shelby’s lawyer, Scott Wood, told the Times that the officer thought Crutcher had a weapon.
Wood said that Shelby radioed for backup after the father-of-four “never makes any response to her” when she asks him whether the SUV belongs to him.
What is clear from the helicopter video is that even from afar, police considered this unarmed man a threat.
The tragic incident is now creating headlines around the country because dashboard footage has been released to the public that appears to depict an unarmed Crutcher with his arms in the air, just prior to losing his life.
Sometime after 7:30 p.m. September 16, dispatchers received two 911 calls. The prosecutor called Crutcher’s death “a tragic event” but declined further comment on the case, citing the ongoing investigation. “The doors are open, the vehicle is still running. It’s an SUV. It’s in the middle of the street, it’s blocking traffic”. The caller added that a man was running from the vehicle, saying he was anxious it would “blow up”. Crutcher was on the side of the road, away from his vehicle. They then crouched down behind a police cruiser. A department spokesperson claimed that Crutcher was not complying with orders to raise his hands, however, footage from the scene did show his hands raised at one point.
When a second police auto arrived as back-up, Crutcher had his hands up as he walked away from Shelby, who was following him with her gun pointed at his back. Police said Crutcher approached after officers arrived to assist.
Mr Crutcher is seen falling to the ground, and someone on the police radio says: “I think he may have just been Tasered”.
“Shots fired”, a woman’s voice said. Crutcher’s head then drops, leaving him lying completely out in the street. “We’re treated as, I guess, criminals – suspects that they fear”, said Crump, who is representing Crutcher’s family just as he did relatives of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed, black Florida teenager who was fatally shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer in 2012.
Mr Crutcher’s twin sister Tiffany Crutcher is calling for charges against the officer who fired the fatal shot.
Officer Betty Shelby has been put on administrative leave pending an investigation into whether the shooting was justified.
One officer deployed his taser.
“We saw that Terence did not have any weapon”.
Crutcher’s family says he was waiting for help on the road after his SUV broke down.
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Protesters offer condolences to Tyler Johnson, son of Terence Crutcher, in front of the Tulsa County Courthouse Monday, Sept. 19, 2016, in Tulsa, Okla., during a protest of the Tulsa Police shooting of Terence Crutcher. As they walked around downtown Tulsa, they demanded further transparency as well as improved training for local police. Crutcher died later at the hospital. A police officer can be seen walking a few paces behind him, gun drawn.
