Episode 5 - Terence Crutcher & Kendra James
Terence Crutcher was having car troubles and stuck in the middle of the road. He was accused of looking like a “bad dude” and shot while his hands were up. Kendra James was riding with friends, when the car she was in was pulled over. She tried getting away, but was shot and killed after being attacked by a police officer.
Transcript
Hey, family! Welcome to the Hands Up, Don't Shoot podcast where I, your host, Ashley France-Howell, tell the stories of Black victims of police brutality. Thanks for listening. Welcome to episode five. Today, I'll be telling you the stories of Terence Crutcher, and Kendra James.
Terence Crutcher was born in Tulsa Oklahoma on August 16,1976 at St Francis Hospital. His parents were Reverend Joey and Leanna Crutcher, and he had two other siblings, including his twin sister, Tiffany. Music was Terence’s passion. He loved to sing, but when he was younger he was pretty shy when it came to singing in public. Eventually, he was able to overcome his public singing fear, and began singing in church and choirs around Tulsa. Terence graduated from Central High School in 1995, and later he met Frenchell Johnson, who became his common law wife. He had four children in total, three daughters and a son.
Terence was described as having a big heart, compassionate, and family man who just loved hosting dinners and cookouts. Like I mentioned earlier, Terence’s passion was in music. He was studying music appreciation at Tulsa Community College. And he was also a member of New Heights Christian Center for over 25 years. And he sang in the choir there as well. He was even a member of the Tulsa chapter of the Gospel Music workshop of America, which is an international conference that brings gospel lovers from all over the world together annually. He was focused on his dream of becoming a gospel singer.
On the evening of September 16, 2016, Tulsa officers were responding to 911 calls from two drivers about an abandoned vehicle in the middle of the road. And one of the calls mentioned that a man, who we now know was Terence, was running away from his SUV, saying that it was going to blow up. And one of the calls, also says “somebody left their vehicle running in the middle of the street with the doors wide open. The doors are open, the vehicle is still running. It's an SUV. It's in the middle of the street, it's blocking traffic.”
Tulsa Officer Betty Jo Shelby was the first to arrive. But she was actually not one of the responding officers. She was actually on her way to a domestic violence call, but stopped when she saw Terence in his car in the middle of the road. So, it was said that she had immediately suspected that Terence was on PCP, and one of her attorneys, Shannon McMurray, said that officer Shelby was trained to spot people on PCP. We do find out later from the medical examiner that Terence actually did have PCP in his system.
Now, we do have video of this incident, and it's actually from two different angles. But the part right before Terence is shot is fairly difficult to make out. And even though we do have two angles, neither angle is good enough for us to make out exactly what happened in those moments before. In the show notes you'll find a link to this episode's page on the website, and you'll find the sources there. And in the sources, you'll find the link so that you can watch the video for yourself and figure out what, what you see. One angle we get is from a police helicopter. And that shows the scene from above, and the other is from the dashcam of one of the officers at the scene. Officer Shelby never turned her body camera on at all during the encounter. And in the moments before the cameras were rolling. It was reported that Terence was partially compliant. So, allegedly he was walking around with his hands in his pockets, and Officer Shelby told him to move his hands and stop walking. He did take his hands out of his pocket, but he did continue walking. And again, we only have this one side to the part of the story.
So then, this is where the video comes in. I want to talk about what we see, but I also want to talk about what we hear. Honestly, there is a part of the audio that makes me a little uncomfortable. There was a comment that was said, and you'll hear for yourself. So, the first half of the video is from the dashcam footage, and the second half is the view from the helicopter.
(News Clip)
We see Terence with his back facing the officers walking towards his SUV with his hands up. And running behind him is Officer Shelby, with her gun in her hand. And then shortly after her is officer Tyler Turnbow with his taser in his hand. So when Terence gets to the driver's side of his SUV, we see two more officers run up behind him. The part that comes next is where it's sort of unclear. And even with the video it’s just, it is difficult to see. So, we see Terence facing the SUV. Now, one side of the story says that Terence reached inside of his window. But another side said that his windows were up. We later learned about this side because it was mentioned that there was blood dripping down and onto the car door. And the only way I could have made that pattern was if the window was up. So unfortunately it's unlikely we'll be sure.
After a few moments, we hear a pop sound, and Terence falls to the ground with blood staining his shirt. Terence was shot with both the taser, and the gun at the same time. Officer Shelby said that she feared Terence was reaching for a gun, but during the investigation there was no gun found. So now we get to the view from the helicopter. And like I mentioned earlier, there was one part of the audio that sort of stood out to me, that there is a cme comment made that I didn't really care for. One of the officers in the helicopter says “that looks like a bad dude too; must be on something.” So this officer is in a helicopter, in the air, and looking at the scene from an aerial view. So I really want to know how he came to that conclusion. From what we see in the video from above, Terence is walking away from the officers with both hands up. And so I just want to know, like, what did he see that made him want to call Terence a bad dude. The medical examiner said that both of Terence’s lungs were pierced, and he had four broken ribs.
Terence was 40 years old.
On September 22nd, Officer Shelby was arrested and charged with first degree manslaughter. She posted bail and awaited her trial. And if she was convicted, she would have faced four years in prison. On May 17th the next year, after deliberating for about nine hours, the jury found officer Shelby not guilty, and she was acquitted of all of her charges. Since being arrested, Officer Shelby had been on unpaid leave. So when she went back to work the week after her trial, she was put on administrative duty. But she was able to receive back pay for those months that she was on leave. A few months later, at the beginning of August, Officer Shelby resigned from the Tulsa Police Department. And a week after her resignation, she was sworn in at Rogers County Sheriff's Office as a reserve deputy, which is basically a volunteer supplemental law enforcement officer.
In August of 2017, Shelby and her attorneys petitioned the court for the manslaughter case records to be expunged. And two months later, that request was granted by District Judge William LaFortune. I did learn that when a record is expunged in Oklahoma, it isn't actually destroyed, but it is sealed and stored for 10 years. So that actually leaves an option for a petition for court records to be unsealed. Terence’s family took the case against Officer Shelby to the federal courts stating that she violated Terence’s civil rights, but on March 1, 2019. The Justice Department announced that there wasn't enough evidence to pursue federal criminal civil rights charges against her.
Terence’s family decided that they would make some good come out of this heartbreaking situation. So, on August 16, 2017, Terence’s twin sister, Dr. Tiffany Crutcher, and their parents launched the Terence Crutcher Foundation. And I want to quote their mission.
“The mission of the Terence Crutcher Foundation is to engage the community, law enforcement, and policymakers in creating and sustaining an approach to prevent, identify, and address issues of inequality pertaining to minorities in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and around the country. The Terrence Crutcher Foundation is committed to empowering, developing programs and raising awareness regarding issues that impact at risk disenfranchised people of color, with an emphasis on African American males and youth. It is our desire to change the narrative that perceive Black men, as “bad dudes,” and pipeline them into a community of achievers through personal growth, education, and attainable resources.”
So that is pretty wonderful. And I'm happy that they were able to do something good in honor of Terence. And that, family, was the story of Terrence Crutcher. Now, I'm going to move to the story of Kendra James.
Kendra S. James was born on December 21, 1981 in Portland, Oregon, to parents, Shirley Isadore, and Kenneth James. Kendra lived in Portland for her entire life, where she was a stay at home mom to two young boys who were three years old, and 18 months old at the time of her death. On May 5, 2003, Kendra was hanging out with two friends. And at 2:40am, Officer Rick Bean pulled over a 2002 Chevy Cavalier that Kendra was riding in. The officer pulled the car over because it didn't stop at a stop sign before making a turn. And it was reported that he had actually started following the car when it left from a hotel because apparently that hotel was kind of known for not so good activity. So he figured that since they were leaving from the hotel, they were up to no good.
So Kendra was sitting in the back of the car, and there was another friend in the passenger seat. When Officer Bean pulled the car over, he learned that the driver didn't have a license, and then he called for backup because there would be multiple people to arrest. So, officers Scott McCollister and Kenneth Reynolds responded to the call, and the driver and the other passenger were placed into custody without incident. So in my research, unfortunately, I could not find a reason why the other passenger was arrested, but they said he was taken into custody.
When the three officers were away from the car, Kendra moved to the driver's seat, and according to the police. she started to try to drive away. But what happens next, has me a bit skeptical about the story. And again we are always circling back to not having all sides to these stories. But, Officer McCollister tried jumping into the car to pull Kendra out. And this is him trying to jump into the car on the driver's side; so where Kendra was sitting. First he grabbed her hair, but since it was a wig, it came off. And then he said, he tried using pepper spray, but it didn't work. So it's possible he may not have had his finger in the right position for the spray to actually come out. And Officer Reynolds shot a taser at Kendra, but it didn't penetrate her clothes to make contact with the skin, so that was also ineffective. Officer McCollister said that he then put his gun to Kendra's head and told her to turn off the engine, but instead she put the car in drive, and the car began to roll forward.
So, we're going to go back to what was mentioned earlier, where Officer McCollister said she tried driving away right after she got in the front seat. But then he says, when he put the gun to her head she put the car in drive. So, there's that disconnect there and I just, I'm not really sure which part is the truth, and that unfortunately we will probably never know what the real story is. And, again, we only have the Officers’ word to go off of. So we can't be exactly sure of the timeline of events. But by this point, most of Officer McCollister's body was inside of the car with Kendra, while his left foot dragged along the pavement. And it was then that he shot her. So the bullet entered her hip and traveled up her body, ultimately killing her. The officers pulled Kendra’s body out of the car, handcuffed her, and left her unattended while they set up a perimeter.
Kendra was 21 years old.
Allegedly, the officers involved either spoke to one another, or went out to dinner later that evening. And this violated a department code that actually prevents officers from speaking to one another after being involved in a deadly incident. And this is to preserve the integrity of the investigation. A trial was held against Officer McCollister, and shortly after ,the grand jury found him not criminally responsible. And it was said that he was justified in his actions. A few months later, Kendra's family began a civil case against the city of Portland, and sued them for $10 million. Emotional testimonies were given, and evidence was presented during the trial, but the judge denied the request.
Fifteen years after her death, a memorial was created for Kendra. It has her photo along with the words, “Black Lives Matter” and “Say her name.” Another sign for the memorial says “Let's build a community where no one is killed by cops.” Unfortunately that is something that we're still hoping for, and something that for right now, seems a long way away. That was the life and death of Kendra James.
I want to thank you so much for listening. And remember, you can find me on Facebook by searching for the Hands Up Don’t Shoot podcast group, on Instagram at hudspod. You can send me an email at hudspod@gmail.com. You can check out my website www.hudspod.com. Remember, HUDSpod is spelled H U D S P O D. Don’t forget to subscribe to make sure you get the latest episodes. And if you don't mind, leave me a five star review. Stay safe, and I'll see you next week.
