NEWS BRIEF Footage released Monday by Tulsa police shows 40-year-old Terence Crutcher was unarmed and held his hands in the air when he was fatally shot by officers last week.
Police released the footage Monday. It can be found here and may be disturbing to some viewers.
“The video is very disturbing, it’s very difficult to watch,” Tulsa Police Chief Chuck Jordan said in a press conference Monday before the video’s release. “We will do the right thing—we will not cover anything up.”
The footage comes from the dashboard camera of a police car that responded to a report of a stalled SUV in the middle of the road in Tulsa. The video shows the car arriving at the scene, where another police car is stopped behind the disabled SUV. Crutcher can be seen walking away from the cop cars and toward the driver’s side of his car, with his hands raised over his head. One police officer follows him, her gun pointed at his back. Three officers join her, obscuring the camera’s view of Crutcher. Crutcher then collapses to the ground. One of the officers’ voices can be heard saying, “Shots fired.”
The department identified two officers involved in the shooting, according to the Associated Press. The first, Tyler Turnbough, was said to have fired a stun gun at Crutcher. The second, Betty Shelby, fired the shot that killed him. Shelby, who has served as an officer in Tulsa since 2011, was placed on paid leave.
