Video of the moments leading up to the shooting, however, shows Crutcher, 40, walking slowly towards his SUV with his hands high in the air in apparent compliance with the officers.
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District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler called the incident “tragic” while placing emphasis on the importance of a thorough investigation.
“That “big bad dude” was a father, that “big bad dude” was a son”, Crutcher’s twin sister, Tiffany Crutcher, said at a press conference on Monday. Police said Crutcher approached after officers arrived to assist.
Terence Crutcher was pursuing his passion for singing at Tulsa Community College, says Tiffany Crutcher. He then says: “That looks like a bad dude, too. That big bad dude, that’s who he was”. His hands are up and a female officer is following him. They surround Crutcher, who continued to walk back to his auto, where he appeared to place his hands toward the vehicle.
The victim is then seen on his back having been shot.
Crutcher is then seen to fall to the ground.
In the video, Crutcher lies in the middle of the street, motionless, soon to be dead. Crutcher didn’t comply with the officer’s commands and reached inside his vehicle, according to the Tulsa Police Department. “We have one suspect down”.
Jeanne MacKenzie, Tulsa Police public information officer, said that the responding officers on the ground thought Crutcher had reached his hands into the driver’s side window of the vehicle. The case is the latest in a string of shootings of unarmed black men by US police that have raised questions of racial bias. Before that she spent four years working as a Tulsa County sheriff’s deputy. Officers Shelby and Turnbough have been put on administrative leave with pay.
According to the watchdog site killedbypolice.net, Crutcher was the 825th person killed by police since the beginning of 2016.
He says Shelby thought Crutcher was retrieving a weapon from his vehicle when she opened fire.
The chief released few details about the shooting Monday, but said that officers discovered an SUV running in the middle of the road with its doors open.
It takes almost two minutes for the officers to even approach him to check his vital signs.
The chief added, “I would like to see us be a better city than some of the other cities we’ve seen”.
Crutcher’s family have called for charges against Shelby and for peaceful protests following another police-involved killing of a black man. Crutcher suffered a single gunshot wound to the chest, police said.
Police said that he was shot while he had no weapon on him or in his vehicle.
“This is bigger than us right here. We’re going to stop it right here”.
Local and federal officials have launched criminal investigations to determine whether Crutcher’s civil rights were violated and what, if any, charges are warranted.
“He refused to follow commands given by the officers”, MacKenzie said.
Now, she said, charges should be pressed in order to ensure justice is served.
“When unarmed people of colour break down on the side of the road, we’re not treated as citizens needing help. We saw that Terence was not being belligerent”, one of the attorneys for the family, Damario Solomon-Simmons, said at a news conference separate from one police held.
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Police had claimed that Crutcher was reaching inside his auto without his hands up.
