TULSA, Okla. (AP) – A Tulsa jury has found Tulsa police officer Betty Shelby not guilty of manslaughter.
The jury deliberated for more than nine hours.
Shelby was charged with felony manslaughter last September after shooting an unarmed black man.
She says Crutcher did not obey her commands when she told him to “show me your hands.”
She also testified that Crutcher put his hands on the vehicle and moved to reach into the vehicle.
That’s when Shelby fired her weapon at Crutcher, and the officer next to her, Officer Tyler Turnbough, tased him.
An autopsy revealed PCP was found in Crutcher’s system at the time of the shooting.
During cross-examination, Shelby said even though she noticed Crutcher smelled like PCP chemicals, she had forgotten to mention it in her interrogation interview.
“In spite of anything that Terence may have done in his past that may have a negative turn to it, it does not justify murder,” said Dr. Rodney Goss with Morning Star Baptist Church. “It doesn’t matter; she didn’t have a toxicology report when she murdered him. She didn’t know about anything in his past when she murdered him.”