Betty Shelby resigns from police force
TULSA — Betty Shelby has resigned from the Tulsa Police Department, according to a statement she released through her union Friday morning.
Shelby was a field officer when she fatally shot Terence Crutcher last fall, and she was suspended from her job until a jury acquitted her of manslaughter in May. The police department then moved her to an administrative position and removed her from patrol work.
“Since being reinstated, I have found that sitting behind a desk, isolated from all my fellow officers and the citizens of Tulsa, is not for me,” Shelby said in a written statement published by the Tulsa Fraternal Order of Police on its Facebook page.
The union issued a response in a statement:
“The Tulsa FOP Lodge 93 supports Officer Betty Jo Shelby as she takes this next step in her life. We are disappointed she feels can no longer continue her career as a Tulsa Police Officer, but we know this is the best move for her and her family.”
Shelby fired one shot and hit Crutcher in the torso on Sept. 16, 2016. Shelby encountered his vehicle in the middle of the street on East 36th Street North while en route to an unrelated call.
Crutcher, 40, was unarmed when Shelby shot him once in the upper right chest next to his stopped SUV.
The Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office charged Shelby six days later, prior to the completion of a Tulsa Police Department internal investigation into the circumstances of the shooting. She was charged with first-degree manslaughter.
A jury acquitted Shelby on May 17 of the firstdegree manslaughter charge. Despite the acquittal, jurors indicated Shelby was not “blameless” in a letter filed in the court record.
The letter, penned by the jury’s foreman, states the jury concluded that any officer in Shelby’s situation would have used force against Crutcher. The foreman states in the letter that the jury believed that an electrical stunning to subdue Crutcher “could have saved his life.”
“Because of this perceived option that she may have had, many on the jury could never get comfortable with the concept of Betty Shelby being blameless for Mr. Crutcher’s death,” the foreman states in the letter. “But due to the lack of direct or even circumstantial evidence that she was acting outside of her training in the 30 feet prior to Mr. Crutcher reaching the window of that SUV, the jury was forced by the rule of law to render a not guilty verdict.”
Crutcher’s slaying broke his family’s heart, created strife among the district attorney’s office and the police department and strained community relations with the police.