The video is disturbing and prompts many questions — and that's how the police see it. The family of Terence Crutcher, who was shot dead by police Friday, says the footage should lead to criminal charges against the officer who killed an unarmed man.
Crutcher, who was black, died next to his SUV that had stopped in the middle of a two-lane road in Tulsa, Okla. Seconds before he was shot, police dashcam and helicopter footage shows, he had walked to his car with his hands held over his head as Officer Betty Shelby walked behind him, her gun raised.
In the recording from the Tulsa police helicopter, an officer is heard saying of Crutcher as he walks in front of Shelby, "Looks like that's a bad dude, maybe on something."
Officers had been called to the scene by passers-by who had reported a vehicle abandoned in the road. "He took off running," a woman told a 911 operator, saying that the man said his vehicle might blow up. She added, "I think he's smoking something."
Shelby, who is white, was one of four police officers who were standing at the rear bumper of Crutcher's car as he stood next to his vehicle around 7:45 p.m. Friday. She's also the officer who shot him once, in the upper body — and who then radioed, "Shots fired." Police say another officer used his Taser on Crutcher at nearly the same time he was shot.
Officer Shelby's attorney, Scott Wood,
told the Tulsa World that Shelby believed Crutcher was reaching for something inside his car, and that he hadn't been following her commands.
"After watching the video and seeing what actually happened," said Tiffany Crutcher, Terence's twin sister, "we're truly devastated. The entire family is devastated."
Tiffany Crutcher then went on to tell the media gathered in Tulsa, "You all want to know who that big 'bad dude' was. That big 'bad dude' was my twin brother. That big 'bad dude' was a father. That big 'bad dude' was a son. That big 'bad dude' was enrolled at Tulsa Community College, just wanting to make us proud.
"That big 'bad dude' loved God; that big 'bad dude' was at church singing, with all his flaws, every week. That's who he was."