Cellphone video posted to social media raised questions about the conduct of several police officers seen surrounding a Black man at an Oklahoma bar, escorting him from the establishment, and searching him for a gun he didn’t have.
The incident was captured at DVL Bar in downtown Tulsa, according to a video post on TikTok.
The video shows two male officers trying to remove a man from his chair while he’s sitting down. Several onlookers protest the treatment, asking the reason for their presence and whether they have a warrant.
The officers ask the man to step outside to talk to him, prompting more questions from him and other bar patrons about why they had been called to the bar.
But the officers continued to insist that the man walk outside with them.
When he does, several people, including the woman filming the interaction, follow behind him.
Outside the bar, the man asks why multiple officers are surrounding him if they’re only there for questioning, as onlookers shout at police to conduct their inquiry.
“My uncle literally died from police in this city. Do you not think I’m not gonna be intimidated or scared? Like why is this going on?” the man asks.
“Terence Crutcher, look him up!” he states.
Terence Crutcher died in September 2016 after being fatally shot by police officer Betty Shelby in Tulsa.
His case drew national attention and widespread protests after video footage showed him standing with his hands in the air before he was shot. He was also unarmed.
Shelby was later acquitted of criminal charges she faced for the shooting, but the incident still raised questions about why she chose to take lethal action instead of firing a weapon that would merely incapacitate Crutcher, like a Taser.
After invoking Crutcher’s name, the man continues to ask questions about the reason police have to question him.
“What’s going on? I didn’t do anything wrong!” he yells.
Suddenly, two police officers approach him, place his wrists behind his back while assuring he won’t be handcuffed, and search him.
The woman filming the video pans around the scene to show ten cops surrounding the man as two officers search him.
Onlookers continue to protest the officers’ decision to search the man without providing a reason or asking him questions as they promised.
Finally, after their search is complete and they don’t discover any illicit items, the man begins to log a few of their names and badge numbers in his phone.
A bar manager also comes outside at one point to ask the police why they even pulled the man from the bar.
A few moments later, a female officer finally informs the man that police were called to the bar after learning that someone was carrying a firearm.
“We’re trying to combat the gun violence here and stop people from getting shot,” the female officer states as a rationale. “So what I’m trying to do is make sure that you didn’t have a gun. That’s all I need to know.”
It’s unclear why police profiled the man out of all the patrons in the bar. He and bystanders also questioned the need for such a heavy police presence for one person.
Before the officers let the man return to the bar, one cop asked for his name.
He denied the request, stating that he doesn’t have to give his personal information to police. Oklahoma law dictates that citizens generally don’t have to provide their personal information to police if they’re stopped in public, unless they are stopped for a traffic violation or police have reasonable articulable suspicion the detainee has committed a crime.
“That man know his rights!” someone yelled out in the background of the video.
The footage was posted by TikTok user @bulletprooftacos_ on June 30, who overlaid the video with the text, “Tulsa PD Racially Profiling.” Several commenters also questioned the police’s conduct.
“Glad you recorded this! That’s way too many officers for a man who was calmly minding his business,” one person wrote.
“They didn’t even approach him formally, they just went straight to grabbing him with no explanation. That’s wild behavior,” someone else added.
