So, it’s going to be a long road for Shelby and the Crutcher family. A female officer is following him.
Advertisement
But the victim’s family denied that claim and referred to a photo from police footage that appeared to show Mr Crutcher’s SUV window was rolled up.
Oklahoma City Thunder All-Star guard Russell Westbrook says “something has to change” in the United States following the recent police shootings of black men in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Charlotte, North Carolina.
A police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black motorist in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has been charged with felony manslaughter in the first degree. Sue’s guest is Michael Curry, President of the Boston Branch of the NAACP.
“I do not know who the source was, but that information did not come from the PIO (public information) office”, said Officer Jeanne MacKenzie, a spokeswoman. “You could nearly tell it in her voice when she said, “Shots fired” [into her radio]”.
The officers slowly back away.
Emergency medical responders arrive about four minutes after he is shot. The shooting was caught on video.
The five-year department veteran in turn told investigators she feared for her life after she thought she saw Cruthcer reaching for a weapon from inside his auto.
Also absent is audio that could have captured exchanges between Crutcher and Shelby.
It all started after a 911 call September 16 from a woman who said an abandoned auto was blocking the street and a man was running away. Shelby, en route to a domestic violence call, encounters the abandoned vehicle and eventually radios into dispatch, “Hold traffic”.
In footage of the shooting, an officer aboard a helicopter above can be heard saying, “He’s got his hands up there for her now”.
In dashcam and aerial footage, all doors of Crutcher’s SUV are closed, so there is no view of what is inside.
From the video, it is not clear what orders police may have given Crutcher before he was killed, and again, Shelby is presumed innocent. The court papers filed said, she escalated the situation and over-reacted.
An attorney for Shelby has said the officer believed Crutcher was using the hallucinogenic drug PCP, and a police spokesman has confirmed the drug was found in Crutcher’s SUV. But Officer Jeanne MacKenzie told the World on Thursday that Shelby was carrying a Taser that day.
Shelby joined the Tulsa police force in 2011 and had worked for the County Sheriff’s Department for four years prior to that. He said Crutcher repeatedly ignored Shelby’s commands and didn’t respond to her questions. Shelby’s attorney, Scott Wood, has said that Shelby completed drug-recognition expert training and thought Crutcher was acting like he might be under the influence of PCP. Police did find a vial of PCP in his vehicle and Shelby’s attorney claimed she thought Crutcher was high on the drug when she shot him. He stood beside his driver’s side window as several police officers stood behind him with their weapons raised.
Wood, Shelby’s attorney, said the officer has been receiving death threats. Afterwards, Shelby pulled out her sidearm, and when Crutcher approached his vehicle, she opened fire, killing him.
Attorneys for Crutcher’s family said Thursday they will be seeking a “vigorous prosecution” that results in a conviction.
Advertisement
“I pray this decision provides some peace to the Crutcher family and the people of Tulsa, but we must remain patient as the case works its way through the justice system, where a jury will likely be asked to decide whether officer Better Shelby is guilty of the crime”, said Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin in a statement released in response to the charges. Police videos have not been released in this case so as not to compromise the investigation, authorities said. “Rest, and if the cause is to be continued, we’ll have the strength to fight”.
