Ex-Tulsa officer in killing is deputy

TULSA — A white former Tulsa police officer who resigned after being acquitted of manslaughter in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man was sworn in Thursday as a reserve deputy sheriff in a neighboring county.

Wearing a firearm on her hip and dressed in a Rogers County sheriff’s office uniform, Betty Shelby took her oath of office at the agency in the nearby city of Claremore. While Shelby’s duties haven’t been determined, she will serve in a volunteer capacity and won’t be paid, said Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton.

Shelby, 43, was acquitted of manslaughter in May in the shooting death of Terence Crutcher. Shelby was on patrol Sept. 16, 2016, when she shot Crutcher as he stood with his hands up near his SUV in the middle of a Tulsa street.

She returned to the Tulsa Police Department in an administrative capacity two days after her acquittal but resigned in July, saying she felt isolated from other officers. Her resignation also brought to an end an internal investigation.

Walton, who has been an ardent supporter of Shelby and a critic of the Tulsa County prosecutors who filed a manslaughter charge against her six days after the shooting, told reporters that Shelby’s first order of business will be to qualify on the gun range with a firearm.

Her attorney, Shannon Mc-Murray, said Shelby will speak to a group of about 3,500 officers at a conference in Nashville, Tenn., at the end of the month about how to be prepared if they are charged in a police shooting.

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