The U.S. Justice Department did not find sufficient evidence to prosecute former Tulsa police officer Betty Shelby for civil rights violations over the 2016 shooting death of Terence Crutcher, the Tulsa World reports. Shelby, 45, faced a first-degree manslaughter count in over her on-duty shooting of Crutcher, 40, in 2016. A jury acquitted her of the charge released a letter expressing concerns about whether Shelby should continue a career in law enforcement. Crutcher’s twin sister, Tiffany, called the DOJ’s decision “very disappointing” but said the family is “not defeated.” She said, “I made a vow the night of the verdict that I would not rest until I tore down this system of corruption and until I reformed the police department, not just locally but around this country. For close to 900 days, we’ve been fighting for justice. And the fight for justice continues.” The family of Crutcher, an unarmed black man, has sued the city of Tulsa, Shelby, and other officers.
U.S. Attorney Trent Shores said, “Mistake, misperception, negligence or poor judgment are not sufficient to establish a federal criminal civil rights violation.” He said evidence was not sufficient to establish that Shelby’s use of force was “objectively unreasonable” based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s criteria. Shelby resigned from the Tulsa Police Department in 2017 and has since worked as a Rogers County sheriff’s deputy. Damario Solomon-Simmons, an attorney for the Crutcher family, said the existing legal threshold for such cases in effect means “the system is set up to protect officers like Betty Shelby.”