Oklahoma cop: Race didn’t factor into shooting of black man
TULSA, Okla. — A white Oklahoma police officer charged with manslaughter for fatally shooting an unarmed black man last year says the man’s race had nothing to do with her decision to fire her gun.
Tulsa officer Betty Jo Shelby told CBS’s “60 Minutes” in an interview that aired Sunday that she used lethal force because she feared 40-year-old Terence Crutcher was reaching inside his SUV for a gun.
“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,’” Shelby told correspondent Bill Whitaker in her first interview since the Sept. 16 shooting.
Shelby said she remembers the moment Crutcher appeared to reach inside.