Homicide

Oklahoma officer's attorneys want handgun kept as evidence

Associated Press
Published | Updated

FILE - In this Friday, Sept. 16, 2016 file photo, Tulsa police officer Betty Shelby, right, is escorted from the Tulsa County Sheriff's office into a courtroom with her attorney Shannon McMurray, left, in Tulsa, Okla., Friday, Sept. 30, 2016. Shelby is charged with first degree manslaughter in the Sept. 16, 2016 killing of Terence Crutcher. Attorneys representing Shelby are asking authorities to hold on to a handgun that they say Terence Crutcher may have fired a day before his death. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File) (The Associated Press)

RETRANSMISSION TO CORRECT DATE OF FILE PHOTO TO SEPT. 30, 2016 - FILE - In this Friday, Sept. 30, 2016 file photo, Tulsa police officer Betty Shelby, right, is escorted from the Tulsa County Sheriff's office into a courtroom with her attorney Shannon McMurray, left, in Tulsa, Okla., Shelby is charged with first degree manslaughter in the Sept. 16, 2016 killing of Terence Crutcher. Attorneys representing Shelby are asking authorities to hold on to a handgun that they say Terence Crutcher may have fired a day before his death. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File) (The Associated Press)

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 Terence Crutcher. Shelby shot Crutcher after arriving on a street to find Crutcher's SUV stopped in the middle of the road.

Defense lawyer Shannon McMurray says a man called claiming Crutcher was seen Sept. 15 walking down a different street and firing a gun, and that police recovered a gun left in the road.

Police declined comment Tuesday. They have said Crutcher had no gun on him or in his SUV when he was shot.