Police stand in formation in Charlotte, N.C., Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016.
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Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency in Charlotte as protests over a police shooting turned violent for a second night.
McCrory said the North Carolina National Guard and the State Highway Patrol have been deployed to the area on the suggestion of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney.
Wednesday’s protests started as a prayer vigil, but a group split off and marched through downtown.
Police did not immediately say if the man killed by officers was the suspect they had originally sought at the apartment complex.
At that point, police unleashed volleys of rubber bullets, tear gas and flash-bang grenades to disperse the protesters, who began hurling fireworks and debris at officers outside the hotel, Reuters news agency reported.
In the aftermath of the afternoon death of Keith Lamont Scott on Tuesday, anger in the streets turned to looting and arson, and North Carolina’s largest city joined the list of communities across the country that have erupted amid a growing debate on racial bias in policing.
Officials said he had a firearm, which is not illegal under local law.
Police said 12 officers were injured during the demonstrations, one of them hit in the face with a rock. But video released Monday showed Crutcher walking with his hands in the air, and an attorney for the man’s family said the vehicle’s window was rolled up when an officer opened fire on him.
Officers repeatedly told Scott to drop his handgun, the chief said, but he didn’t. In the footage, she is at the cordoned-off shooting scene, yelling at officers.
The television station said Vinson and other officers were searching for a suspect on an outstanding arrest warrant. North Carolina has a law that takes effect October 1 requiring a judge to approve releasing police video, and Putney said he doesn’t release video when a criminal investigation is ongoing.
“He got out of his auto, he walked back to comply, and all his compliance did was get him murdered”, said Taheshia Williams, whose balcony overlooks the shady parking spot where Scott was Tuesday afternoon.
The violence broke out shortly after a woman who appeared to be Scott’s daughter posted a profanity-laced, hourlong video on Facebook, saying her father had an unspecified disability and was unarmed.
Neighbors, though, said that the officer who fired was white and that Scott had his hands in the air.
The plainclothes officer, identified as Brently Vinson, a two-year member of the department, has been placed on leave, standard procedure in such cases.
Hundreds demonstrated at the scene of the shooting Tuesday and into uptown early into Wednesday morning.
The contradictions between the police accounts and those of Scott’s Charlotte neighbours highlight the tensions that often exist between heavily armed U.S. security forces and African-American communities, whose members complain of unfair racial profiling and decades of police brutality.
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The three uniformed officers had body cameras; the plainclothes officer did not, police said.
