TULSA, Okla. (AP) – A white Oklahoma police officer charged with manslaughter in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man is testifying in her defense.
Tulsa officer Betty Jo Shelby said Monday that a training video of an officer being fatally shot during a traffic stop ran through her mind last September when she encountered 40-year-old Terence Crutcher, whose SUV had stalled in the middle of a street.
Shelby says she shot Crutcher when she saw him reach into his SUV through a partially open window. She testified that her training taught her not to let suspects pull their arm back out of a vehicle because they might have a gun and have already decided to shoot at the officer.
Crutcher didn’t have a gun on him or in his vehicle. His family says its window was closed.