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TULSA, Okla. (Streetz945ATL/AP) — Video footage from a Tulsa, Oklahoma, police dash cam reveals Terence Crutcher walking toward his vehicle with his hands up with Officer Betty Shelby following behind him.
Crutchers vehicle stalled in the middle of the road. Shelby, a white female officer can be heard barking commands for Crutcher to stop. Crutcher ignores the officer and proceeds towards the vehicle, three male officers walk up to surround Crutcher who appears to lower his hands and reach down and place them on the vehicle.
Tulsa police helicopter footage was among several clips showing the shooting of Crutcher and its aftermath. In that video, a man in the helicopter that arrives above the scene as Crutcher walks to the vehicle can be heard saying “time for a Taser.” He then says: “That looks like a bad dude, too. Probably on something.”
Officer Tyler Turnbough, who is also white, used a stun gun on Crutcher, police said. Shelby’s attorney, Wood, said “Turnbough fired the stun gun and at the same time Shelby opened fire because both perceived a threat.”
The initial moments of Crutcher’s encounter with police are not shown in the footage, and Wood said the situation unfolded for about 2 minutes before the videos began. “Shelby did not activate her patrol car’s dashcam,” said police spokeswoman Jeanne MacKenzie, “and the ground-level video released Monday came from the car of a second officer who arrived at the scene.”
Initial police briefings indicated Crutcher failed to follow officers’ commands, but MacKenzie said Monday she didn’t know what Crutcher was doing that prompted police to shoot. Two 911 calls described an SUV that had been abandoned in the middle of the road. One unidentified caller said the driver was acting strangely, adding, “I think he’s smoking something.”
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