Unarmed Pastor Terence Crutcher shot dead by police

Oh no, not another police assassination of an unarmed Black person! Well, the police video doesn’t lie, although the police officers in their report clearly did.

The justification for opening fire on the Pastor Crutcher, whose car had broken down, was a police claim that he refused to hold his hands in the air, however, the video clearly shows Crutcher with both hands held over his head in a none threatening position.

But as he slowly walks closer to his car with his hands held high he is first tasered and then shot by one of the officers. The gruesome police video then shows the slump man on the ground dying, whilst officers leave him there for a full two minutes before going to his aid.

Pastor Crutcher was treated worse than a rabid dog. He was unthreatening, and unarmed and yet still gunned down. The recording between the officers in the helicopter gives you an insight into the extreme racism and dehumanisation that occurred at this scene and what occurs right across America.

One officers tells the other: ‘He looks like a bad dude, he must be on something’, before another shoots him dead.

So what does a ‘bad dude’ look like? Well, for these enforcement officers being big and black will do it, even if your hands are in the air.

The officer, who shot dead Crutcher, Betty Shelby, had already been investigated for using excessive force in other situations.

Unarmed Terence Crutcher was on his way home from a college course, when his car broke down in the middle of the highway, but instead of assisting Crutcher the whole approach was extremely hostile leading to the man being shot dead.

In another incident a Black man was shot dead by police in mistaken identity when looking for a man they wanted to arrest. Keith Scott, was shot and killed by Charlotte-Mecklenburg officer Brentley Vinson in the North Carolina city.

Both Tulsa, Oklahoma and North Carolina City are on high alert after the shooting of these two innocent men at the hands of the police.

Simon Woolley