Photo Courtesy: Royce Young/Twitter
The family of Terence Crutcher sat courtside Thursday as the Oklahoma City Thunder took the court for a preseason game wearing “TC” patches on their warm-ups.
Their opponents, the Memphis Grizzlies, also wore “TC” pins on their warm-up shirts in honor of Crutcher, who was fatally shot by a police officer Sept. 16 in Tulsa.
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According to a Thunder team official, with Thursday’s game being held in Tulsa, players approached management wanting to raise awareness and came up with the idea of a patch. The Crutcher family also were guests of the organization.
Thunder star Russell Westbrook told ESPN, “Once you’re here in Tulsa, you have to show respect to the family and show your regards and send your love…..Especially me personally, I thought it was very, very important to be able to do that and show that we support them and we are behind his family and support anything they need from us or the organization, we can help them out.”
Crutcher was shot after failing to follow numerous commands of Tulsa Police Officer Betty Shelby, who was arrested for the incident. He had PCP and TCP is his system at the time of his death. He was a convicted felon that had a long violent criminal history that included drugs, resisting and a shooting.