For Police Officers Today, 'Things Go Wrong Sometimes'

As the first officer on the scene, Shelby claims that Crutcher initially ignored her commands to show his hands and that he walked away from her and toward his vehicle. It seems that he only raised his arms when the other officers arrived. And when Shelby fired, according to the affidavit, she couldn't see Crutcher's left hand.

That's part of the problem. Some people make encounters with police overly complicated. When a police officer tells you not to move or to show your hands, you do as you're told. You don't defy, resist, mouth off or move toward your car as if you're going to reach for something. That will likely worry the officer. Things will escalate. And you could get hurt.

Why was Crutcher moving back toward his vehicle? And what would have happened if Shelby's backup had never arrived, and she had to face off against a suspect with both a height and weight advantage? Would she have gone home that night after her shift, or wound up carried by six in a flag-draped coffin?

According to the affidavit, Shelby told investigators that, even after the other officers arrived, she had never been so scared and was "in fear for her life and thought Crutcher was going to kill her."

My friend, the ex-cop, thinks that the fact that Shelby was charged at all probably means that fellow officers at the scene threw her under the bus. In speaking with investigators, he suggested, they must have said something like: "Well, we weren't scared. We had the situation under control."

What if this isn't just about racism but also about sexism? The retired police officer thinks that the male cops may be trying to expel from the force a female colleague who admitted to being afraid on the job. After all, in most cases, male officers involved in shootings never get charged.

Besides, what did the affidavit say? That Shelby was "emotionally involved" at the scene? "Emotional" is a code word that men use to put down women. This smells fishy.

If you care about fairness and equal treatment and want to be politically correct, where do you come down then?

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Ruben Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com.