Putney said he is working to honour the request from the family of Scott to view the video.
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“I am going to be very intentional about protecting the integrity of the investigation and so doing I am not going to release it”, Putney said.
“Some people do a lot of bad, and sometimes you need to see your reflection in the mirror”, he said.
Meanwhile, an undisclosed number of National Guardsmen assembled in Charlotte, sent in by Gov. Rioters had smashed storefront windows, looted businesses and thrown objects at police, prompting officials to declare a state of emergency and the city’s mayor to enact a curfew.
Charlotte is the latest USA city to be shaken by protests and recriminations over the death of a black man at the hands of police, a list that includes Baltimore, Milwaukee, Chicago, New York and Ferguson, Missouri.
“The violence in Charlotte came less than a week after disputed police shooting of a black man in Tulsa – amplifying debates over policing and race that have been thrust open before in places such as Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore”.
Police in riot gear then began marching arm in arm through downtown Charlotte intersections, shooting tear gas at people who charged them. Duke Energy and Bank of America were among the companies who closed their offices and told employees to stay home on Thursday. Police said they found Carr after responding to a call of an assault with a deadly weapon. In addition to the National Guardsmen, North Carolina state troopers and U.S. Justice Department conflict-resolution experts were sent to keep the peace.
The family says: Scott did not have a gun and was reading a book. Tahesia Williams, described as an eyewitness, said, “They took the book and replaced it with a gun”.
Mack argued that since “we have the right under the Second Amendment to carry here in North Carolina”, it was the police’s responsibility “to engage him in a more de-escalated way, to find out if he had a permit for his gun, and allow him to go on his merry way, and he would still be living today”.
However, he told reporters Thursday that the video “does not give me absolute, definitive visual evidence that would confirm that a person is pointing a gun”.
In a statement released through attorney Justin Bamberg, the family said the videos left them with “more questions than answers”.
“When he was shot and killed, Mr. Scott’s hands were by his side and he was slowly walking backward”, he said.
Bamberg said he has not seen any evidence that would indicate a gun was present at the scene of the shooting.
Police body cameras captured the shooting, but the video has not been made public.
Putney, the police chief, was angered by the stories on social media, especially a profanity-laced, hour-long video on Facebook, where a woman identifying herself as Scott’s daughter screamed “My daddy is dead!” at officers at the shooting scene and repeating that he was only holding a book. No information has been released about what may have possibly led to the shooting. “He was taken into the nearby Omni Hotel, and a series of confrontations played out afterward as the police kept people from entering”, they wrote.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) A third night of protests over a fatal police shooting in Charlotte gave way to quiet streets early Friday after the city’s mayor enacted a curfew and rifle-toting members of the National Guard arrived to guard the city’s business district.
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“Transparency is in the eye of the beholder”, Putney reportedly said at a press conference.
