Local and federal authorities are investigating the death of 40-year-old Terence Crutcher, Tulsa Police Chief Chuck Jordan said before the department released dashcam footage of Friday’s shooting.
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Police Chief Chuck Jordan called the videos “very disturbing” and “very hard to watch”, the Tulsa paper reports.
Tulsa Police Sgt. Shane Tuell confirmed that relatives were shown the recordings Sunday ahead of the planned public release.
Jordan said at the news conference that Shelby came across Crutcher while on her way to another call. Moments later Crutcher collapses to the ground, apparently having been shot with a stun gun, before an officer radioes in to say “shots fired”.
U.S. Attorney Danny C. Williams said the Department of Justice will conduct a separate civil rights investigation into the shooting.
Shelby is on paid administrative leave, the Times reports. When asked why police did not provide immediate assistance once Crutcher was down, MacKenzie said, “I don’t know that we have protocol on how to render aid to people”.
Crutcher can be seen dropping to the ground. The officer joined the police force in 2011 and had worked for the county sheriff’s department for four years before that, according to her attorney, who described her record as a clean one.
After that, someone on the police radio can be heard saying, “Shots fired”. That big, bad dude was my twin brother.
“I will make this promise to you: We will achieve justice in this case”, Jordan said.
Tiffany Crutcher said her brother’s future was taken away because of negligence and incompetence – “and because he was a big ‘bad dude'”. That big, bad due was enrolled at Tulsa Community College, just wanting to make us proud.
That looks like a bad dude, too – he might be on something.
You all want to know who that big, bad dude was?
Officers were responding to a 911 call about an abandoned vehicle blocking traffic-Crutcher’s SUV-and a man who might have been “smoking something” running from the auto in fear that it was about to blow up. He says Shelby opened fire and another officer used a stun gun when Crutcher’s “left hand goes through the auto window”.
Shelby’s lawyer, Scott Wood, told the Times that the officer thought Crutcher had a weapon.
The video footage shows an officer following Crutcher slowly from behind with a gun pointed at him. “We’re going to stop it right here”, she said. Police spokeswoman Jeanne MacKenzie has said Crutcher refused orders to put up his hands. The group’s executive director, Ryan Kiesel, said Crutcher’s death shows “how little regard” Tulsa police have for the community’s minorities.
About a dozen protesters gathered outside a Tulsa courthouse early Monday with signs that read “Black Lives Matter” and “Am I Next”.
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“When unarmed people of colour break down on the side of the road, we’re not treated as citizens needing help”, he said.
