The governor of the southern USA state of North Carolina declared a state of emergency on Wednesday following a second night of unrest in Charlotte ignited by the fatal police shooting of a black man.
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At last count, at least three civilians were hospitalized – one in critical condition – and four law enforcement officers were also injured in the violent clashes between protesters and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officers.
(AP Photo/Chuck Burton). Demonstrators are confronted by police at a hotel during a protest of Tuesday’s fatal police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott in Charlotte, N.C. on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2016.
According to police, Scott was armed and ignoring officers’ orders when he was gunned down Tuesday, while the victim’s family and a witness said he was holding a book, not a weapon.
The protesters then began hurling fireworks and debris at the officers outside the hotel.
Officers approached the man and loudly commanded him to get out and drop the weapon, at which point Scott exited the vehicle armed, according to police. Protesters were also seen looting a convenience store after smashing its windows and a shop that sells athletic wear for fans of Charlotte’s National Basketball League team, the Hornets. So they shot him.
Neighbors, though, said that the officer who fired was white and that Scott had his hands in the air.
He was shot when he emerged from his vehicle holding his weapon.
In the southern state of Oklahoma, Tulsa police chief Chuck Jordan called video footage of Crutcher’s deadly shooting on Friday disturbing and “very hard to watch”. On Wednesday that parking space was both the site of a fatal shooting and a shrine, and Charlotte was a city on edge, the latest to play a role in what feels like a recurring, seemingly inescapable tape loop of American tragedy.
“We call for the full release of all facts available”, the NAACP said.
Protests erupted in the home of the Carolina Panthers on Tuesday, spilling over into Wednesday after police in search of a suspect, killed a different man.
With the tear gas faded and the mass of humanity finally off the streets of uptown Charlotte on Thursday morning, city and law enforcement officials are surveying the damage after a second night of furious protests over the Keith Lamont Scott case. “Charlotte has always been quiet”.
“It breaks my heart to see something like this happen, and I have a really hard time believing that Brent shot a man in his auto while waiting for his (son) for no reason”, Marsh said.
As protests in downtown descended into violence, Gov. McCrory warned in a statement that “any violence directed toward our citizens or police officers or destruction of property should not be tolerated”. Protesters have been demanding justice and an end to police brutality for months. Dino Davis said. “They say it was the tear gas, and it looked like one the tear gas exploded”.
A peaceful prayer vigil turned into an angry march and then a night of violence after a man was shot and critically wounded as protesters charged police in riot gear trying to protect an upscale hotel in Charlotte’s typically vibrant downtown. Police said they would release the person’s name after the family has been notified.
Hundreds were expected throughout the evening as Charlotte-Mecklenburg police prepared for another long night.
“And it’s perpetuated against people of color more than anything else”, he said. Some 12 officers were reported injured.
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The incidents were the latest to raise questions of racial bias in US law enforcement.
