TULSA, Okla.—An attorney for a white Oklahoma police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black man has said the man ignored officers’ commands and was reaching through a window of his SUV when he was killed.
But police video from the incident Friday shows 40-year-old Terence Crutcher walking away from the officers and toward his SUV with his hands up when one officer shocks him with a stun gun and he falls to the ground. He is then shot and killed. Police were called to the scene to respond to a report of a stalled vehicle.
Police Chief Chuck Jordan announced Monday, before the video and audio recordings were released, that Crutcher had no weapon on him or in his SUV when he was shot. It’s not clear from the footage what led Betty Shelby, the officer who fired the fatal shot, to draw her gun or what orders officers gave Crutcher. Shelby’s attorney, Scott Wood, said Crutcher was not following the officers’ commands.
