An Oklahoma jury on Wednesday found a white Tulsa police officer not guilty in the fatal shooting of an unarmed Black man last year, who claimed she fired out of fear.
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Betty Shelby, 43, was acquitted after jurors found her not guilty of first-degree manslaughter in the killing of Terence Crutcher, 40, last september. The verdict came nine hours after the Tulsa County District Court jury was sent to deliberate.
At least four of the 12 jurors, which comprised eight women and four men and included three African-Americans, were reported crying when they left the courthouse.
The family of Terence Crutcher burst into tears and expressed outrage after the verdict.
"Let it be known that I believe in my heart that Betty Shelby got away with murder," Crutcher's father, the Rev. Joey Crutcher, said after the verdict was announced.
A lawyer for Shelby said the officer was "elated" that the jury found her not guilty and "she's ready to get back to her life."
The confrontation between Shelby and Crutcher was caught on video. In the police videos, Crutcher can be seen with his hands in the air shortly before he was shot. Shelby said she had ordered Crutcher to stop and get on the ground, but Crutcher disobeyed her commands.
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Lawyers for Shelby have said she believed that Crutcher may have been trying to reach through a partially open window for a weapon in the vehicle when she shot him.
Tulsa police have said Crutcher was unarmed and there was no weapon in his vehicle, which was blocking a road.
Shelby told the jury in her own defense on Monday that she was taught during law enforcement training that if a suspect reaches into an area like a car, an officer does not let them pull their arm back because they might be holding a gun, according to the Tulsa World.
"If you hesitate, if you delay, then you die," Shelby was quoted saying.
Prosecutors have said there was no reason for Shelby to fire on a man who was walking away from her. They blamed her for overreacting and escalating the situation.
An autopsy showed that Crutcher had 96 nanograms per milliliter of PCP in his bloodstream at the time of his death, and police said they found a vial of it in his SUV. But Crutcher's family said police attempted to "demonize" Crutcher over the drug possession.
"This is a tough pill to swallow. The facts were there. The elements were there. Terence's hands were in the air. He was not an immediate threat," Crutcher's sister, Tiffany, said after the verdict.
About 50 protesters gathered outside the courthouse in downtown Tulsa and chanted "no justice, no peace" after the verdict was read. Some of them then marched down the street to the hotel where they believed Shelby was staying and blocked traffic in an intersection, the Tulsa World reported.
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“I have a 20-year-old son who can barely leave the house because I’m so scared something could happen to him. It doesn’t matter that he’s been raised right,” Rhonda Washington, a Black mother of two from Tulsa, told the Tulsa World. “It’s terrible to have to live in captivity and fear.”
Recent of deaths of unarmed Black men killed by the police in the United State had sparked a national debate over racial bias in law enforcement and prompted calls for more police accountability.
Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum said in a statement he respected the jury's decision and called for more resources to implement community policing in the city.
"It does not change our recognition of the racial disparities that have afflicted Tulsa historically," he said. "It does not change our work to institute community policing measures that empower citizens to work side by side with police officers in making our community safer."