TULSA, Okla. _ A fatal police shooting of an unarmed black man by a white officer has reopened fresh wounds in this city with a fraught history among blacks, white residents and police officers.
A graphic police video shows Terence Crutcher, 40, being fatally shot by a police officer Friday night as he walks with his hands up toward his SUV, stalled out in the middle of the road.
The incident quickly became the latest flashpoint in a string of controversial police shootings of black Americans. Protests were planned Tuesday evening in downtown Tulsa, the ACLU asked that criminal charges be filed against the officer, and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said news of the shooting was "unbearable."
"We have got to tackle systemic racism," Clinton said on "The Steve Harvey Morning Show." "This horrible shooting again. How many times do we have to see this in our country?"
An attorney for Officer Betty Shelby, who shot Crutcher after responding to a dispatch call about an abandoned car, said Crutcher failed to heed police commands and that she and another officer, Tyler Turnbough, felt threatened and fired nearly simultaneously. Turnbough used a stun gun.
The city's police chief, who released helicopter and dash-cam video of the shooting, called the images "disturbing" and vowed to "achieve justice."
Protesters quickly demanded that Shelby to be fired, and the Crutcher family called for criminal charges against the officer, who has been put on routine administrative leave. The Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation and local authorities are independently investigating the shooting.
The last night of life for Crutcher, a father of four who was on his way home from a class at Tulsa Community College, began with a pair of 911 calls reporting an abandoned car with its engine running and doors open in the middle of the road.
"I got out and was like, 'Do you need help?' reported one caller, who said Crutcher "took off running" after asking her to "come here, come here," and saying the car was going to "blow up."
"I think he's smoking something," the same caller said.
Police videos show Crutcher walking toward his SUV with his hands up. Four officers, three male and one female, approach Crutcher as he walks to the driver's side and seems to lower his hands and put them on the car. The dash-cam video is blocked by officers, and Crutcher is partially blocked by his own car in the helicopter video, making it difficult to see his movements. A man in the helicopter video says, "That looks like a bad dude, too. Probably on something," before suggesting it was "time for a Taser."
Within seconds, Crutcher drops to the ground. "Shots fired!" a woman yells on police radio as officers slowly back away while holding their guns up. Officers wait more than two minutes before approaching Crutcher again.
He was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Police say the videos did not capture Shelby arriving on the scene because she did not turn her dash cam on.
"When unarmed people of color break down on the side of the road, we're not treated as citizens needing help. We're treated as, I guess, criminals _ suspects that they fear," said Benjamin Crump, one of the attorneys representing the Crutcher family.
David Riggs, another family attorney, said there was nothing in the video to suggest Crutcher was dangerous. Riggs said he was seeking an immediate meeting with the district attorney.
The Crutcher family doesn't "want this ignored or swept under the rug or allowed to just go without being addressed," Riggs said.
Police and the Crutcher family, which through attorneys has cautiously praised police for quickly releasing videos and audio of the shooting, have differed on key parts of Crutcher's last moments: whether he disobeyed police or not, and whether he was reaching into his car.
In initial reports, police said Crutcher was not following officers' commands. But speaking to media Monday, Tulsa police spokeswoman Jeanne MacKenzie said she wasn't sure what Crutcher did that made police shoot.
Asked why Crutcher wasn't given immediate medical aid, MacKenzie said she was unsure. "I don't know that we have protocol on how to render aid to people," she said.
Family attorneys said Tuesday that police found PCP in Crutcher's car, but dismissed that discovery as playing a role in his death. A toxicology report is pending. Attorneys also contend that Crutcher's driver's side window was up and left smeared with blood after he was shot, suggesting that police had no reason to fear him reaching into the car for a weapon.
At a news conference Tuesday, attorneys displayed enlarged and enhanced photos from the videos where the SUV's driver's side window appeared to be up. Police statements and a statement from Shelby's attorney say she shot because she feared Crutcher was reaching into his car for a weapon.
Crutcher's twin sister, Tiffany, choked up as she spoke to the media over the weekend and echoed the chants of the Black Lives Matter movement, saying her brother's "life mattered."
"Just know that our voices will be heard. Let's protest. Let's do what we have to do, but let's just make sure that we do it peacefully," said Tiffany Crutcher, who celebrated a birthday with her brother a month ago.
Ryan Kiesel, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma, called for criminal charges and said the shooting underscored "how little regard" police have for minorities in Tulsa.
Police tactics in Tulsa, the second-largest city in Oklahoma, have come under increased scrutiny. The shooting comes four months after Tulsa County volunteer deputy Robert Bates was sentenced to four years in prison on a manslaughter charge after shooting and killing Eric Harris, an unarmed black man, during an undercover operation in 2015. The white reserve deputy said he mistakenly reached for his gun instead of his Taser.
That kind of conviction is rare. According to a Tulsa World database, there have been 162 fatal police shootings _ including 24 involving Tulsa police _ since 2007. Only two, including the shooting by Bates, led to criminal convictions. Of deadly police shootings in Tulsa, 29 percent of victims were black. The city's black population stands at 11 percent.
The scars of a 1921 race riot in which white individuals attacked the black community, destroying businesses and leaving many homeless, are also still felt in Tulsa, where schools still teach history lessons on the incident. The death toll was estimated to be between 50 and 300, according to the Oklahoma Historical Society.
Dewey Morrow, who owns D&F Mini Mart in Greenwood, the site of the historic riot, says he doesn't understand how the incident Friday escalated from a car breaking down to a man being shot to death.
"What turned? How did it turn and why was deadly force used?" the 58-year-old black American said. "He had his hands up.
"There was nothing in that situation that wouldn't suggest to you or I that the police officer wouldn't help you."
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