Tulsa Police Officer Indicted, Released From Jail For Shooting From March

A Tulsa Police officer was booked and released from jail, after a multi-county grand jury indictment.

Officer Aaron Russell faces a charge connected to a shooting back in March, where a suspect with a gun was hit, but survived.

Officer Aaron Russell walked out of jail Friday, a few hours after he went to court to face a single charge of reckless handling of a firearm. He's free on a personal bond that doesn't require cash for bail. He will have another court date next March.

“I think this officer was acting exactly as he was trained to act in this situation,” Scott Wood, consulting attorney, said.

Wood has video of the shooting, showing Russell's backing officer almost in danger - but not quite.

“It was a mistake because the backer was not where he believed he was, but it was a reasonable mistake and the law allows for reasonable mistakes to be made,” Wood said.

Russell remains on administrative leave while the court case proceeds, and Woods said he's confident a jury will find the officer’s actions were reasonable.

“It was tense, rapidly evolved, from the time he announced gun to the time it was over, was only 12 seconds, so it was a rapidly evolving event,” Wood said.

This is a misdemeanor charge with court action delayed by Covid-19. The suspect did have a gun in the car, and was a felon, who police said admitted taking off in his car because he didn't want to go back to jail.