White Tulsa police officer who fatally shot Terence Crutcher will not face federal civil rights charges

The white police officer who fatally shot Terence Crutcher, an unarmed Black man, in Tulsa in 2016 will not face federal civil rights charges.

The U.S. Department of Justice noted Friday that it found insufficient evidence to level charges against Betty Shelby, who was acquitted in the shooting two years ago, The New York Times reported.

The case that included video of Crutcher holding his hands up as Shelby shot him in the middle of a Tulsa street gripped the attention of a nation in the wake of a collection of similar incidents involving police and unarmed Black men. Shelby, who was an officer with the Tulsa Police Department at the time, said she fatally shot Crutcher in self-defense because she thought he was reaching for a firearm in his car.

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“Any allegation of law enforcement misconduct and willful deprivation of civil rights is taken seriously,” R. Trent Shores, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Oklahoma, said in a statement. “However, the evidence, in this case, did not support pursuing criminal prosecution. Moving forward, I hope that citizens and law enforcement will continue to work together to better our community.”

Crutcher’s sister, Tiffany Crutcher, said she was disappointed in the position. Shelby was acquitted of first-degree manslaughter in the case in 2017. Following that, the family moved forward with a wrongful death lawsuit.

“Change requires changing and I made a vow the night of the verdict until I tore down this system of corruption until I reformed the police department not just locally but around this country,” she told NewsOn6.

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Crutcher’s SUV broke down in a Tulsa street on Sept. 16, 2016, where he encountered and was fatally shot.

Shelby, now a Rogers County, Okla., sheriff’s deputy, drew national attention last summer after revelations that she would teach a class with the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Department focused on surviving the aftermath of a shooting.