His intent is to do me harm: White Tulsa officer explains why she fatally shot unarmed black man
A white Oklahoma police officer charged with first-degree manslaughter said her decision to shoot an unarmed black man was not motivated by race.
Terence Crutcher died because the 40-year-old was not following her orders, and she shot him because she believed he was about to reach for a weapon, Officer Betty Shelby told CBS's Bill Whitaker on '60 Minutes' in an interview scheduled to air Sunday.
“I’m feeling that his intent is to do me harm, and I keep thinking, ‘Don’t do this. Please don’t do this. Don’t make this happen,” she said in her first public statements about the September encounter with Crutcher.
“What I based everything on was his actions, his behaviors,” Shelby said. “Race had nothing to do with my decision-making.”
Prosecutors say Shelby, a five-year veteran with the Tulsa Police Department, “overreacted” when she shot Crutcher, a father of four. The traffic stop on Sept. 16 was recorded on video, and the death fueled protests over racial injustice.
Shelby is one of only a few female officers to be charged in a fatal shooting in the past decade. If convicted, she faces a minimum of four years in prison.
Police cameras captured Crutcher walking toward his car with his hands above his head while officers followed closely behind with their weapons raised, The Washington Post's Peter Holley and Katie Zezima reported. He was standing next to his SUV, his body facing the window on the driver’s side, when he fell to the ground. The footage does not provide a clear view of when Shelby fired a shot.
Tulsa police say Crutcher did not have a gun on him or in his vehicle.
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