Terence Crutcher

Terence Crutcher, 40, was shot and killed by Tulsa Police Officer Betty Shelby on September 16, 2016, after she encountered him beside his stalled SUV in the middle of a north Tulsa street. Video from a police helicopter piloted by Shelby's own husband and from officers' body cameras showed Crutcher walking toward his vehicle with his hands visible before Shelby fired; the helicopter pilot could be heard remarking that Crutcher “looks like a bad dude.” Shelby testified she believed Crutcher was reaching into the vehicle for a weapon; no weapon was found. She was charged with first-degree manslaughter and, after nine hours of jury deliberation, acquitted of all charges on May 17, 2017. Crutcher's family called the verdict an injustice; no one has ever been convicted in his death.

Tulsa, OK · Tulsa County County

• 2016: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• The encounter, the shooting, and Crutcher's death, per body camera and police helicopter video that was released publicly.
• No weapon was recovered from Crutcher's vehicle or person.
• Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler charged Shelby with first-degree manslaughter less than a week after the shooting.
• A 12-member jury, including three Black jurors, deliberated for nine hours before acquitting Shelby of all charges on May 17, 2017; several jurors were reported crying as the verdict was read.
• Shelby was reinstated to the Tulsa Police Department in an administrative role following her acquittal, then resigned from the department in August 2017.
• An autopsy found PCP in Crutcher's system at the time of the shooting, which the defense raised at trial; the family's attorneys argued this did not justify the shooting regardless.

• Whether Crutcher was in fact reaching into his vehicle, as Shelby testified, versus simply attempting to comply or retrieve documentation, was disputed by the family's attorneys based on the same video evidence and never resolved beyond the acquittal.
• The full content and reasoning behind the jury's nine hours of deliberation is not public, as with all jury deliberations.
• Whether the Department of Justice's separate federal civil rights review, opened after the state acquittal, reached a final public conclusion has not been consistently reported in available sources.

• CNN — “Betty Shelby: Tulsa officer acquitted in fatal shooting of Terence Crutcher”
• NBC News — “Jury Acquits Tulsa Officer Betty Shelby in Shooting Death of Terence Crutcher”
• NAACP Legal Defense Fund — “Case in Point: Four Holes in Officer Betty Shelby's Defense”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs