This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedantum.

On a September evening in 2016, Terence Croucher's SUV

stopped in the middle of a road in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

A woman saw him step out of the car.

The doors of the car were open, the engine was still running.

The woman called 911.

Officer Betty Shelby was on her way

to an unrelated incident when the call came in.

Terence was 40, African-American, born and raised in Tulsa.

He was a church-going man with four children.

Betty was 42, white, a mother.

She was born in a small town not far from Tulsa.

In an ideal world, these two Oklahoma natives, close an age,

ought to have had more to bring them together

than hold them apart.

But on this evening, there was no small talk or friendly chatter.

The police officer told Terence to take his hands out of his pockets.

According to our attorney, he forced complied.

He then put his hands up in the air.

Moments later, he put his hands back in his pockets.

By this point, multiple police officers

had gathered and drawn their guns and tasers.

...