Day of service planned to commemorate the life of Terence Crutcher

Family, friends and others in the community will participate in a day of unity and service Wednesday to honor the life of Terence Crutcher.

On Sept. 16, 2016, Crutcher, 40, was fatally shot by a Tulsa police officer responding to reports of an abandoned vehicle in the road. Video released showed Crutcher with his hands up walking toward a vehicle.

“Wednesday will mark four years since Terence’s life was cruelly cut short,” the Terence Crutcher Foundation said in a press release. “Every day since his family and our community have worked to shine a light on his legacy, his story and his love for our community. Terence was a man of faith, of joy and of love - he embodied all of the best things of Tulsa.”

Beginning at noon, a group of clergies will hold a press conference at All Souls Unitarian Church on Brookside to announce the display of “Black Lives Matter” murals and artwork at churches across Tulsa.

“A key phrase in our expanding awareness is ‘Black Lives Matter,’” said Pastor Chris Moore of Fellowship Congregational UCC. “While this phrase has a life of its own on a national and international stage, here in Tulsa it has taken the form of a mural on Greenwood Avenue, site of the massacre in 1921.”

Moore said six churches in Tulsa will display similar public art pieces.

“We intend these art pieces as a reminder to us as we arrive to and leave from our own worship spaces… a reminder that IF Black lives matter, then we must change the ways that we have organized ourselves, the actions we take and even the way that we see the world, for it has not been historically or systemically built on the directive that Black lives matter,” Moore said.

Cox Media Group