On Friday, Sept. 16, a Tulsa, Oklahoma man was shot by police after his car stalled in the street.
According to Tulsa World, 40-year-old Terence Crutcher was shot after failing to follow officers’ instructions during an evening traffic stop.
Around 7:40 p.m., officers arrived on the scene to investigate an SUV sitting in the middle of the road.
Crutcher allegedly reached into his stalled vehicle in the middle of a north Tulsa road to retrieve an unknown object.
Officers on scene said they were approached by the stalled motorist from the roadside. He failed to comply with their demands. Subsequently, officers felt threatened and shot him.
Tulsa Police spokesperson Jeanne Mackenzie says in the clip that Crutcher’s vehicle blocked both lanes when officers came upon it.
She adds that Crutcher failed to show his hands when officers requested him to do so.
“We don’t know if there was a weapon in the vehicle or not,” Mackenzie says.
However, police did not draw their weapons immediately. One officer deployed a taser and then the second officer fired at him.
The Associated Press reports that two white officers were involved in the shooting. Tulsa Officer Betty Shelby fired the fatal shot while Officer Tyler Turnbough used a taser.
He was pronounced dead later that night at St. John Medical Center.
Now, Crutcher’s family is speaking out about the shooting.
His twin sister Tiffany Crutcher tells Tulsa World that she and the family just want answers.
“There’s one thing, one fact that I do know is that my brother was unarmed.”
The family has retained the services of attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons as the investigation of the shooting gets underway.
Solomon-Simmons says Crutcher was a Tulsa Community College student and was leaving school when his car stalled.
“We don’t know why [he was shot]. We don’t know how.”
