Tulsa Police Officer Betty Shelby enters the courtroom for her manslaughter trial in the shooting of Terence Crutcher May 15, 2017. MIKE SIMONS/Tulsa World
TULSA, Okla. (AP) — A jury has acquitted a white Oklahoma police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black man last year.
10 p.m.
The jury reached its verdict after deliberating for just over nine hours Wednesday.
Tulsa Officer Betty Jo Shelby says she shot 40-year-old Terence Crutcher out of fear because she said he didn’t obey commands to lie on the ground and appeared to reach inside his SUV for what she thought was a gun.
Prosecutors told jurors that Shelby overreacted, arguing that Crutcher had his hands in their air and wasn’t combative.
The shooting was among a spate of officer-involved shootings in recent years that helped galvanize the Black Lives Matter movement and prompted calls for more police accountability.
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10:15 p.m.
The lawyer for a Tulsa police officer says Betty Jo Shelby is elated that a jury has found her not guilty of manslaughter in the shooting of an unarmed black man last September.
Defense Attorney Shannon McMurray says Shelby is “elated and very proud of her jury.”
McMurray says Shelby is ready to get back to her life.
Shelby testified that she shot 40-year-old Terence Crutcher out of fear because she said he didn’t obey commands to lie on the ground and appeared to reach inside his SUV for what she thought was a gun. Prosecutors told jurors that Shelby overreacted, arguing that Crutcher had his hands in their air and wasn’t combative.
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10:45 p.m.
The father of a black man fatally shot by Tulsa police officer Betty Jo Shelby last year says that the officer got away with murder.
Speaking after a jury found Shelby not guilty of manslaughter, Rev. Joey Crutcher, father of Terence Crutcher, said: “Let it be known that I believe in my heart that Betty Shelby got away with murder.”
Terence Crutcher’s sister, Tiffany Crutcher, says that her brother did not show any aggression toward Shelby, did not attack her and did not threaten the officer.
Tiffany Crutcher said: “Betty Shelby murdered my brother and after she murdered my brother the Tulsa police department covered up for her.”
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