Prosecutors in the southern US city of Tulsa on Thursday charged a police officer who fatally shot an unarmed man with first-degree manslaughter. The shooting of Terence Crutcher on Friday, recorded by dashboard cameras and a police helicopter, led to heightened tensions between yet another US police department and African-Americans.
In the video, the 40-year-old man is seen with his hands up, leaning against his car.
He is then shot once by officer Betty Shelby and falls to the ground.
Photo: AP
In a court filing, the Tulsa district attorney’s chief investigator Doug Campbell said Crutcher was shot when reaching into his car’s driver’s side front window. Another responding officer used a Taser at the same time.
Campbell also said Crutcher had been mumbling to himself and that Shelby had made statements after the shooting that she had been “in fear of her life” during the confrontation.
“Officer Shelby reacted unreasonably by escalating the situation from a confrontation with Mr Crutcher, who was not responding to verbal commands and was walking away from her with his hands held up, becoming emotionally involved to the point that she overreacted,” Campbell said.
Crutcher, who did not have a gun, died at a hospital from a single gunshot wound to the chest. Shelby was charged with a felony count of first-degree manslaughter — heat of passion, which carries a minimum sentence of four years in prison if convicted.
In the charging document, Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweller called her actions “unreasonable.”
Responding to the charges during a news conference, the victim’s twin sister Tiffany Crutcher applauded the quick action of the district attorney.
“We will stay vigilant as this process moves forward and join the others, peacefully, in demanding greater accountability and transparency from law enforcement,” she said. “We’re demanding full prosecution. We want a conviction.”
The US Department of Justice has opened a federal civil rights probe, parallel to the investigation being carried out by local authorities. Demonstrators in Tulsa, in the state of Oklahoma, had demanded that the officer be punished. However, protests have remained peaceful so far, unlike in Charlotte, North Carolina, where the shooting death of a black man at the hands of police on Tuesday set off violent clashes between law enforcement and demonstrators.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
RELEASE: The move follows Washington’s removal of Havana from its list of terrorism sponsors. Most of the inmates were arrested for taking part in anti-government protests Cuba has freed 127 prisoners, including opposition leader Jose Daniel Ferrer, in a landmark deal with departing US President Joe Biden that has led to emotional reunions across the communist island. Ferrer, 54, is the most high-profile of the prisoners that Cuba began freeing on Wednesday after Biden agreed to remove the country from Washington’s list of terrorism sponsors — part of an eleventh-hour bid to cement his legacy before handing power on Monday to US president-elect Donald Trump. “Thank God we have him home,” Nelva Ortega said of her husband, Ferrer, who has been in and out of prison for the
RSS