Betty Shelby, the former Tulsa, Oklahoma cop who shot unarmed motorist Terence Crutcher during a traffic encounter, has been acquitted of manslaughter.
“I feared for my life,” she told a Tulsa jury on Monday.
The jury never got a chance to hear a comment made by Shelby’s husband, Officer David Shelby, calling Crutcher “a bad dude,” as he hovered in a helicopter over the scene.
Crutcher’s death touched off massive protests by Black Lives Matter and others around the country.
Video footage released by police showed Crutcher walking slowly toward his SUV while officers yelled orders at him to stop.
Shelby fired the shot that killed Crutcher without provocation as he stood outside his truck.
His vehicle was simply stalled on a highway in Tulsa, Oklahoma, yet all these police officers responded with their guns drawn.
Graphic video showing the shooting death of Terence Crutcher, 40, on Friday, went viral, adding the case to the list of police-involved shootings raising questions about relations between law enforcement in the United States and black men.
Police said they were responding to a call of a vehicle abandoned in the middle of the roadway. In video from officers’ dashcams and also from a helicopter, four officers are seen responding as Crutcher holds his hands up in the air and walks away from officers, toward his stalled vehicle.
In the video taken from the helicopter, a male is heard to say, “That looks like a bad dude too. He might be on something.”
Police said Crutcher did not respond to their commands and that one officer used a stun gun on him and another shot him.
Police Chief Chuck Jordan, meeting with reporters, assured that justice would be done and called in the Justice Department before the Justice Department called him to ask for an investigation.
“I’m going to tell you right now that there was no gun on the suspect or in the suspect’s vehicle,” Jordan said. “I want to assure our community and I want to assure all of you and people across the nation who are going to be looking at this: we will achieve justice.”
Crutcher’s twin sister, Tiffany Crutcher, said the family demands to know what happened and wants charges pressed against police officer Betty Shelby, who shot and killed Crutcher.
“We ask for facts, we ask for answers, and we clearly got it through the video and we are devastated,” she said. “The entire family is devastated.”
Tiffany Crutcher, playing on the words of the male on the video shot from the helicopter, said her brother was a good man who loved God.
Betty Shelby, the former Tulsa, Oklahoma cop who shot unarmed motorist Terence Crutcher during a traffic encounter, has been acquitted of manslaughter.
Crutcher’s twin sister, Tiffany Crutcher, said the family demands to know what happened and wants charges pressed against police officer Betty Shelby, who shot and killed Crutcher.
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