T ThinkProgress
The videos seem to contradict the department’s initial explanation.
Dash
cam videos released Monday show Tulsa Police Department officers
killing an unarmed 40-year-old black man who had his hands raised.
Terence
Crutcher was shot and killed by police shortly before 8:00 pm on Friday
night. He was unarmed and apparently seeking police assistance because
his car had broken down. Tulsa Police Chief Chuck Jordan confirmed
Monday afternoon at a press conference that Crutcher had no weapon, and
hinted that his department is treating his death like a crime.
The
videos, including three from police cars and a fourth from a
helicopter, are disturbing. None captures the entirety of the
interaction between Crutcher and Officer Betty Shelby, who shot and
killed him.
But
all of them show him with his hands raised, walking back to the side of
his car, while Shelby follows with her gun raised. Another officer
arrives, and fires his Taser at roughly the same moment that Shelby
shoots Crutcher.
The
department did not release video from Shelby’s own cruiser. A
department public information officer told ThinkProgress that none
exists, because Shelby had not turned her camera on manually and never
switched her roof lights into the mode that automatically activates the
camera.
She
was initially the only officer on the scene. Turnbough appears to have
been second to arrive. He had been out of his car for less than 30
seconds when Shelby shot Crutcher.
Jordan
called the videos “very disturbing” and “difficult to watch,” according
to local news reporters. They also appear to contradict the officers’
initial description of what happened.
TPD initially told the public that Crutcher had ignored officers when they told him to raise his hands
and reached back into his car, prompting Officer Shelby to shoot and
Officer Tyler Turnbough to fire his Taser. Shelby shot Crutcher once,
and he was pronounced dead later at a hospital.
But the videos
show Crutcher with his hands above his head, walking slowly back to the
driver’s side of his truck, when he is suddenly tased and shot. The
helicopter footage includes an officer murmuring that Crutcher “looks
like a bad dude,” while another acknowledges that Crutcher’s hands are
up but says he doesn’t seem to be complying with Shelby’s commands.
Shelby
has been with TPD since 2011. Before joining the city force, she was a
deputy with the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office from summer 2007 through
fall 2011, the local Fox affiliate reports.
Shelby is approximately 42 years old and previously served in the
Oklahoma Air National Guard for five months, excerpts from her Sheriff’s
Office personnel file provided to ThinkProgress indicate.
Over the weekend, the department showed the videos to Crutcher’s family and to local leaders, including pastor Rodney Goss.
“His hands were in the air from all views,” Goss told
the Tulsa World. He added that the videos showed Crutcher approaching
officers near his truck, which had broken down, and then returning
toward the vehicle again slowly, and being shot down.
“It
was not apparent at any angle from any point that he lunged, came
toward, aggressively attacked, or made any sudden movements that would
have been considered a threat or life-threatening toward the officer,”
Goss told the paper.
Crutcher’s
twin sister Tiffany has said she wants Shelby charged. While Chief
Jordan declined to answer specific questions about Crutcher’s killing
Monday, he indicated his department is treating his death as a crime.
“This is a criminal investigation.
If you really expect me to carry this forward the way the community is
asking and the way my oath says I will, I can’t discuss it further,”
Jordan said. Federal investigators have opened their own separate investigation into whether or not Crutcher’s civil rights were violated, the Associated Press reported Monday afternoon.
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