There will be yet another Department of Justice investigation into yet another police shooting of an unarmed black man. Terence Crutcher was killed this past Friday while standing next to his broken-down SUV.
Officer Shelby’s Husband In The Police Helicopter
Officer Betty Shelby came upon Crutcher’s stalled SUV while en route to a domestic violence call. She stopped to investigate the SUV, which was in the middle of the road with flashers on. Back-up arrived after she reported that the suspect was not following her instructions.
Betty Shelby fired the shot that killed Crutcher. Her dash cam was not recording, but the police helicopter circling above the scene was collecting footage. Inside the chopper, Officer Betty Shelby’s husband Dave Shelby was narrating the video. It clearly shows Terence Crutcher with his hands up.
Police Dash Cam
According to this police dash cam video, Crutcher was shot just 23 seconds after one of those back-up units arrived on the scene. In that recording, the police cruiser’s radio played a song referring to “trigger fingers” as officers moved about the scene. One female officer ran and three other police backed slowly away from the bleeding man.
It was about another two minutes before any of the officers approached Terence Crutcher, who had been tasered as well as shot. He died at a local hospital.
9-1-1 Calls
At least two 9-1-1 calls came in about Crutcher’s SUV blocking traffic. One anonymous caller reported that its driver had told him that he thought “it’s going to blow up”. The caller expressed the opinion that Crutcher was “smoking something,” according to transcripts released by the Tulsa Police Department.
Attorneys Speak
The attorney for Tulsa Police had stated that Crutcher was shot as he reached into the window of his SUV.
Lawyers representing the Crutcher family showed photographs that they say prove that Terence Crutcher could not have been reaching into the window of his vehicle, because the window was closed.
Tulsa police said that PCP had been found inside the vehicle, but would not confirm if the victim had been under the influence of the drug. Crutcher family attorneys say that this is not relevant to the shooting.
Attorney Benjamin Crump responded:
“If we started to condemn everybody to death just because they have drugs in their system, all our neighborhoods would be empty,” he said.
As seemingly evidenced by the footage, Crutcher did nothing that should have alarmed officers enough to warrant a death sentence. This has reached epidemic proportions. And yet, people are complaining about Kaepernick sitting down during the playing of the national anthem at a sporting event.
A short video of the helicopter footage of the shooting – VERY GRAPHIC:
Longer video from the dashcam of a secondary police vehicle that arrived on the scene – GRAPHIC:
Featured image from YouTube video.
