Oklahoma officer’s attorneys want handgun kept as evidence

TULSA, Okla. — Attorneys for a white Oklahoma police officer who killed an unarmed black man are asking in court records for investigators to keep as evidence a handgun that an anonymous tipster claims the man fired a day before the fatal shooting.

Tulsa police officer Betty Jo Shelby is charged with first-degree manslaughter in the Sept. 16 shooting of 40-year-old Terence Crutcher. Shelby shot Crutcher after she arrived on a street to find Crutcher’s SUV stopped in the middle of the road. Shelby has pleaded not guilty and is on unpaid leave.

One of Shelby’s lawyers, Shannon McMurray, said Tuesday that a man called last week and claimed Crutcher was seen Sept. 15 walking on a different street and firing a gun, and that police were notified and recovered a gun left in the road.

“What, if any, material value (the gun) has is to be determined at a later date,” McMurray said. “We don’t know, but both sides look at every piece of potential evidence to include and exclude. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be doing our jobs.”