By Tristian Villegas, Courier Staff Writer
A forty year old man by the name of Terence Crutcher was coming home from his night classes in Tulsa community college as his car broke down in the middle of the road. Tulsa police soon responded to a call about an abandoned car in the middle of the road, and after officers arrived on the scene Terence Crutcher in the video shows Crutcher raising his hands, walking toward his SUV and leaning against it.
He was then tasered by once by an officer named Tyler Turnbough, and then shot once. The officer that shot Crutcher was Betty Shelby an officer that has been with the force since 2011. In an interview, Shelby’s lawyer, Scott Wood, states the officer had thought that Crutcher had a weapon. Wood said Crutcher had acted erratically, and refused to comply to several orders. He also said that Crutcher tried to put his hands in his pocket and reach inside his car window before he was shot. The video from the helicopter cam shows Crutcher walking towards his car with his hands up, as the video plays from the helicopter footage a man makes a remark about Crutcher, “ that looks like a bad dude too “ as then he gets tased then shot and as the blood stain starts to get larger an officer calls on the radio “ Shots Fired! “.
According to the New York Times feral justice department opened a separate case, to see whether or not a civil rights violation occurred. Tulsa police chief Chuck Jordan said, “ Officers found no gun on Crutcher or in his SUV. Jordan also 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 period. “ Also, Crutchers sister released a statement on the death of her brother, and she and her family are demanding justice. In her statement she also calls to what the man said about her brother saying who that “ big bad dude “ was.
