One person has died from a gunshot wound sustained during protests in Charlotte, N.C., Wednesday night as a crowd again gathered to protest the fatal shooting of a black man by a police officer earlier in the week.
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The North Carolina governor declared a state of emergency after a person was critically injured in a shooting as more intense violence and looting broke out Wednesday night during protests against the Charlotte police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott.
According to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police, officers were searching for a suspect with an outstanding warrant on Tuesday at The Village at College Downs when they came across Keith Lamont Scott inside a vehicle at the apartment complex.
WBTV will be monitoring Wednesday night’s protests.
The second night of violent protests added Charlotte to the list of US cities that have erupted in violence over the death of a black man at the hands of police. Police used tear gas and flash bangs to disperse demonstrators joined by “agitators” who set fires and shut down part of Interstate 85, Putney said.
The police chief told reporters that 16 officers were injured during the demonstrations, one of them hit in the face with a rock.
The police chief also said the officer who shot Scott was in plainclothes, wearing a vest with a police logo, and was accompanied by other officers in full uniform. City officials were quick to say the police had not fired any live rounds, but the riot police did fire several rounds of tear gas.
Authorities had to use tear gas to disperse the protests in North Carolina’s largest city, which joins Milwaukee, Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri, on the list of US cities that erupted in violence over the death of black men at the hands of police.
Police routinely entered the housing complex on Tuesdays and today on patrol and should have seen that “this is his normal routine”, she said of Scott, who regularly waited for his son at the bus stop. According to the AP, police say that the wounded man was not shot by a police officer.
This is a breaking news story.
“People get upset when we say ‘black lives matter, black lives matter, ‘ said a student”. Just minutes earlier, a CMPD source confirmed to NBC Charlotte that a witness’ photo from the shooting scene showed what investigators are calling the gun Scott had in his possession at the time of his shooting. “Officers were giving loud, clear verbal commands”.
However, Putney added that he did not know whether Scott “definitively pointed the weapon specifically toward an officer”. “Charlotte is not a good place right now; we’re in the throes of this problem”. As we go to press on September 21, another rebellion has erupted in Charlotte, N.C. Local police departments can decide to release recordings if they want, but if they decline to do so a judge’s order is required. In a video later posted on social media, a woman claiming to be Scott’s daughter said that he was unarmed and was instead holding a book.Putney rejected that claim, saying that officers recovered a gun at the scene, not a book.
The shooting of Scott comes just a day after police in Tulsa, Okla., released video of an officer shooting and killing an unarmed black man who had gotten out of a stalled SUV.
Video of police shootings has proven key to investigations of use of force in the past.
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory announced that the state will be sending more highway patrol troopers to Charlotte, further militarizing the fully-geared city riot police.
The black officer who shot Scott, Brently Vinson, has been placed on administrative leave as is standard procedure in such cases.
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However, Scott also had a long police record that included gun violations.
