Exhumations to resume; Bid to ID Tulsa Race Massacre victims
It is now a year since Terence Crutcher was fatally shot by a Tulsa police officer while he was sitting in his car while his daughter was on a school trip.
His death led to the largest police investigation in Tulsa history.
More than a year after the shooting, a man walking at the scene of the shooting told police it was Terence’s girlfriend that shot Crutcher, not him.
His family has no recollection of the actual shooting or what happened that night.
Prosecutors released dashcam video in September, and the police still haven’t been able to make the case that Terence was a victim of police brutality.
The Tulsa Police Department’s investigation began after the shooting and led to the discovery of the identity of one of the police officers who shot Crutcher.
His name was Brian Encinia, but he has yet to be identified. He has been placed on administrative leave, and the department’s internal affairs bureau has since completed a criminal investigation with the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation.
The man who watched Crutcher being shot at close range also has not been able to find a connection between Crutcher and the woman who shot him.
The Tulsa Police Department has been conducting its own internal investigation into the shooting.
“It’s still a very active investigation that we have,” said Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation Sgt. James Gilliland.
He says the state police have not had any contact with the Tulsa Police Department.
Gilliland says the police department has yet to release its findings, but he says, “every time we hear from them we go back to the beginning, review the evidence, talk to witnesses, do our investigation, and hopefully we’ll have something to go forward with.”
The TPD investigation has been delayed as the DA’s office continues to investigate, but a decision is expected to be made in the coming weeks.
According to Gilliland, they are continuing to interview witnesses, trying to retrace the events that lead up to the shooting.