On September 16, 2016, Terence Crutcher, a 40-year-old black motorist high on PCP,[1] was shot and killed by police officer Betty Jo Shelby in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Six days later, on September 22, the Tulsa County District Attorney charged Shelby with first-degree manslaughter after the shooting was labeled a homicide.

[7] The officers involved in the incident at Tulsa, Oklahoma, on September 16, 2016, were Betty Shelby and Tyler Turnbough.

[3][4] At 7:36 p.m.[8] on September 16, 2016, police received a 9-1-1 call about an abandoned vehicle in the middle of 36th Street North just west of Lewis Avenue.

[23] Shelby's attorney had previously stated that she thought Crutcher might be under the influence of PCP based on what she learned during her drug-recognition training.

[23][24] The police department paid $216,000 in overtime costs for 10 days after the death for services related to increased demonstrations, staffing of patrols, marches, Crutcher's funeral, and news conferences by the district attorney and Crutcher family during which the Incident Management Team also had a command post operating.

[26][27] Crutcher's twin sister said that federal Department of Justice officials told her (in her words): "because of the way the laws are written that it was almost next to impossible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt in these cases of police misconduct and use of force.

[4][29] Ahead of the release of the video and audio recordings, the Tulsa chapter of Black Lives Matter held a protest outside the courthouse.

[8] Crutcher's family, protestors, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma called for Shelby to be charged with his death.

[29][30] Terence Crutcher was included in a list of Black Americans killed in police interactions at the conclusion of 2020 short film Two Distant Strangers, in which a Black American is repeatedly killed by a police officer whilst stuck in a time loop.

[31][32] Shelby turned herself in at the Tulsa County Jail on the early morning of September 23, 2016, where she was booked, posted a bond of $50,000 and was released.

[35] Betty Shelby quit the Tulsa Police Department soon after the trial and became a Rogers County, Oklahoma Sheriff's Deputy.