GoFundMe page for Terence Crutcher’s children raises $120,000 in less than 24 hours
An online campaign to raise money for the children of Terence Crutcher — the unarmed black man who was shot and killed last week by a white Tulsa, Okla., police officer — has raised more than $120,000 in less than a day.
The fundraising campaign’s GoFundMe page, which was created by the law firm representing the family, received more than 4,800 donations since its launch Wednesday morning. The fund, which will be used to assist Crutcher’s four children “as they deal with the tragic loss of their father,” is about $50,000 shy of its $175,000 goal.
Crutcher’s killing attracted national attention this week after the Tulsa Police Department released videos from a police helicopter and a police cruiser dashcam that show the 40-year-old Crutcher walking to his SUV with his hands over his head before he was shot.
The officer, 42-year-old Betty Shelby, was placed on paid administrative leave as homicide detectives investigate the case. An attorney for Shelby said she had recently undergone drug-recognition training and believed Crutcher was acting erratically and under the influence of PCP. Tulsa police say they found the drug inside Crutcher’s car.
“I think that the police are trying to figure out a way to justify blaming Terence Crutcher for his own death,” Benjamin Crump, one of the family’s attorneys, said on CNN.
The U.S. Department of Justice has launched its own investigation to determine whether a civil rights violation occurred during Crutcher’s death.
“If he would have been a Caucasian, it would have been totally different,” Crutcher’s father said in the same interview. “And if the circumstances were in reverse, Terence would have been charged immediately.”
Both presidential candidates quickly weighed in on the case.
“How many times do we have to see this in our country?” Hillary Clinton said Tuesday. “In Tulsa? An unarmed man? With his hands in the air? I mean, this is just unbearable, and it needs to be intolerable. You know, maybe I can, by speaking directly to white people, say, ‘Look, this is not who we are.’”
Clinton’s opponent, Donald Trump, said the officer “choked.”
“I must tell you, I watched the shooting in particular in Tulsa, and that man was hands up,” the Republican nominee said at a church event in Ohio Wednesday morning. “That man went to the car. Hands up. Put his hands on the car. To me it looked like he did everything you’re supposed to do. And he looked like a really good man.”
According to the family’s lawyers, none of the money raised through the online fund will be used for legal fees.
“We never charge clients for legal services hourly or in advance,” the firm said in a statement. “Legal fees are only paid out of funds recovered from unrelated parties.”
