The Tulsa, Oklahoma Police Department have released footage from a dashboard camera that shows a white officer shooting and killing an unarmed black man who was leaning on his car as the officer approached.
40-year old Terence Crutcher was shot and killed by Betty Shelby last Friday night, after she encountered him while en route to another call. She reportedly requested for backup when she was “not having cooperation” with him.
Footage from a police helicopter also captured the graphic scene, which shows Crutcher leaning on a vehicle before being tasered by one officer, Tyler Turnbough, and then shot by Shelby. She is currently on paid administrative leave.
Tulsa’s police chief, Chuck Jordan later announced that Crutcher was unarmed and did not have a weapon inside the vehicle that he was leaning on. Shelby's lawyer, Scott Wood, contests that she thought Terence Crutcher had a weapon on him and that he acted erratically, refused to comply with several orders, tried to put his hand in his pocket and reached inside his car window before he was shot.
According to the NY Times:
According to that video, when the second police car arrived, Mr. Crutcher had his hands raised and was walking away from Officer Shelby, who walked behind him with her gun pointed at his back. She was soon joined by three more officers. Mr. Crutcher was shot less than 30 seconds after the second car arrived.
The helicopter video shows the same scene from above. “He’s got his hands up there for her now,” one officer aboard the helicopter can be heard saying. “This guy is still walking and following commands.”
“Time for a Taser, I think,” a second officer in the helicopter can be heard saying.
“I got a feeling that’s about to happen,” said the first officer, identifed by Mr. Wood as Officer Shelby’s husband, Dave Shelby.
“That looks like a bad dude, too,” the second officer said. Mr. Crutcher was shot moments later, and the helicopter camera captured footage of him sprawled on the pavement, his shirt stained with blood.
The Tulsa police department has reportedly opened a criminal investigation into the shooting. The graphic footage that was recently made public can be seen below.