Prosecutors charged a white Oklahoma police officer with first-degree manslaughter Thursday, less than a week after she fatally shot an unarmed black man on a city street and just days after police released videos of the shooting, saying in court documents that the officer “reacted unreasonably.”
Tulsa County Dist. Atty. Steve Kunzweiler charged Tulsa Police Officer Betty Shelby in the Sept. 16 shooting death of 40-year-old Terence Crutcher. Kunzweiler said arrangements were being made for Shelby’s surrender.
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,” according to an affidavit filed with the charge.
The swift action in Tulsa stood in contrast to Charlotte, N.C., where police refused under mounting pressure Thursday to release video of the shooting of another black man this week and the National Guard was called in to try to a head off a third night of violence.
