According to an arrest affidavit, Shelby told investigators “that she was in fear for her life and thought Crutcher was going to kill her”.
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Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin released a statement Thursday saying she hoped the decision to charge the officer provides some peace to Crutcher’s family and the people of Tulsa. She said he was soft-spoken but well-known throughout the neighborhood.
When Crutcher reached into the driver’s side window, Turnbough fired his Taser and Shelby shot him once in the right lung area, court papers allege. “Nothing will bring back our father, our son, our brother, our nephew, our cousin”.
Attorneys representing Crutcher’s family and an attorney for Shelby offered conflicting accounts of what happened when Shelby encountered Crutcher.
According to the activist, the husband of Officer Betty Shelby – the Tulsa cop who fatally wounded Crutcher – was in the helicopter that hovered over the scene of the shooting.
Police said soon after the shooting that he had ignored officers’ commands, but a lawyer for the Crutcher family said witnesses were “shocked and outraged that he actually was shot” as he had been responding to the requests.
When the Tulsa Police Department released police videos of the moments around Crutcher’s death, Chief Chuck Jordan said the footage was “very disturbing; it’s very hard to watch”. A voice heard on the police radio says: “Shots fired!” She looked into the passenger’s side to make sure no one was on the floor of the auto, and as she was getting ready to move to the driver’s side, she turned around and saw Crutcher walking toward her, Wood said.
“He has his hands up and is facing the auto and looks at Shelby, and his left hand goes through the vehicle window, and that’s when she fired her shot”, Wood told the Tulsa World.
As Crutcher approaches the driver’s side, more officers walk up and Crutcher appears to lower his hands and place them on the vehicle. The officers could easily have tackled him before he could have reached a weapon, she adds. Crutcher was mumbling to himself and wouldn’t answer Shelby’s questions, the document says. His hands are up and a female officer is following him. And police said Crutcher did not have a gun on him or in his vehicle. Shelby believed that when Crutcher attempted to reach into the auto, he was retrieving a weapon, Wood said.
Was the vehicle window open? That followed the fatal shooting of Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, Oklahoma, last week after his auto was found abandoned in the middle of the road.
Police there were serving a search warrant for another man, when they say they encountered 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott, who police say was armed.
The White House says President Barack Obama has called the mayors of Charlotte, North Carolina, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, to get an update on protests after fatal shootings of black men by police officers.
The officers surround him and suddenly he drops to the ground. Nearly immediately, a woman’s voice yells on the radio, “Shots fired!” Crutcher is left lying in the street.
Shelby was charged with first-degree manslaughter, which is punishable by a minimum of four years in prison.
Saying that Crutcher’s death “was on the hearts and minds of many people in this community”, Kunzweiler praised the residents of Tulsa, saying the community “has consistently demonstrated a willingness to respect the judicial process”.
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Now the Crutcher family is calling for a National Day of Justice on September 27. “She said the other day in her interview with homicide detectives, ‘I was never so scared in my life as in that moment right then.'” U.S. Attorney Danny C. Williams said there will be a Department of Justice civil rights investigation into the shooting, separate from one conducted by local authorities.
