Even after Officer Betty Shelby was charged with first-degree manslaughter, CNN’s chief police apologist still isn’t sure Terence Crutcher’s death was unjustified.
Harry Houck, a law enforcement analyst for CNN, said he didn’t know if there was enough evidence to charge the Tulsa police officer because he hadn’t seen every available piece of information from the fatal encounter.
“I don’t know yet, because I don’t know enough evidence regarding this case,” he said. “If I do a further analysis, when more comes out on the case I’ll take a look at it and I’ll make my own decision based on that. But right now we don’t know enough.”
Another panelist, retired Los Angeles police sergeant Cheryl Dorsey, said prosecutors had likely charged Shelby because she unnecessarily put herself in harm’s way before firing the fatal gunshots.
“What we do know is that the tactics that led up to this deadly force incident were deplorable,” Dorsey said. “She took herself from a position of cover and concealment, she walked up on someone who she said was scaring her more than she’s ever been scared in her entire life (and) created a situation where now deadly force had to be used.”
Dorsey also wondered what had made Shelby so fearful, because she did not articulate her concerns in her statement to investigators.
“What was it? If you were in fear, why are you running up on him?” she said. “You don’t just get to say, ‘I’m in fear,’ and now olly olly oxen free — you get to kill somebody. Someone failing to comply does not require lethal force.”
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