TULSA - It's a case that shook the town, and then the country.
At this point just about everyone recognizes the names Betty Shelby and Terence Crutcher.
Saturday marks one year since they had the exchange that changed both their lives.
“I was waiting on him to come," said Terence's father Reverend Joey Crutcher.
The words replay vividly in his mind.
“My sister came over I was on the piano, and she whispered to me and said, 'Joe, Terence is dead. He just got shot by the police.'”
He was at church when he found out.
“I lost it," he recalls.
He had no idea behind the flashing lights and police cruisers at 36th Street North and Lewis that night, were the answers to questions racing through his mind.
“I wondered, I said, 'I wonder what was he doing for him to get shot by the police?'"
Terence's sister Dr. Tiffany Crutcher can't shake the images from the video.
“I still wake up in the middle of the night and I see a picture of my twin brother with his hands in the air," she said.
Tulsa's chief of police showing it to them personally a few days later.
“What I see on the video is my son with his hands up in the air, and he was actually doing what I’ve taught him," said Reverend Crutcher.
He said he always told his son.
“I said, 'raise your hands up, and put your hands on the car,'" he said. “But that didn’t work for Terence. It didn’t work at all, but I know that’s what he was doing.”
Tulsa erupted.
The outrage widespread and split.
Officer Betty Shelby identified as the one who pulled the trigger, leading to a trial.
“I just felt like we were let down," Dr. Crutcher said.
Shelby left the courthouse a free woman.
“I just felt when that verdict came out, it was another shot fired.”
Dr. Crutcher facing a podium the next day.
One she admittedly wanted to avoid, but couldn't.
“I didn’t want people to feel defeated because I know hopelessness is the enemy of justice.”
She said with or without the verdict they prayed for, there's still work to do.
“Our goal is to bring his last phrase, last words to life. And those words were, 'God will get the glory out of my life.'"
They're bringing those words to life Saturday with a gala for the Terence Crutcher Foundation.
“I believe it takes foundations like this bringing everybody together from all walks of life saying, enough is enough.”
In her brother's name, they'll fund education for African American students, and promote anti-violence and prayer initiatives.
“We want it be known, we want everybody to know how much we loved our son and just how great he was to us," his father said.
One year later, the Crutcher family said they're stronger, holding on to Terence's last words until they can, one day, hold him again.
Saturday, September 16, the anniversary of Terence's death his family will lay his tombstone at his grave site.
In the past year Officer Betty Shelby received an acquittal of her first-degree manslaughter charge, and became a Rogers County reserve deputy.
2 Works for You reached out to the Tulsa Police Department and Betty Shelby's attorney, neither wished to comment.
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