A state of emergency was declared in the U.S. city of Charlotte, North Carolina, Wednesday night, as the second night of protests against police’s fatal shooting of a black man turned violent.
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And with the governor’s emergency declaration, members of the North Carolina National Guard will soon deploy on Charlotte city streets.
Originally, it was about the police shooting death of a 43-year-old African-American named Keith Lamont Scott.
Charlotte police officers went to the complex at about 4 p.m. looking for a suspect with an outstanding warrant when they saw Scott – who was not the suspect they were looking for – inside a auto, department spokesman Keith Trietley said in a statement.
However, Scott’s family says he was waiting to pick up his son from school and was holding a book, not carrying a gun, as alleged by the police. “It doesn’t matter if you’re black or white, it’s what you represent”.
Roberts added that authorities would consider other options if violence continues to flare, “possibly curfews and that sort of thing, but right now, we are continuing to work with what we have tonight”. But some threw bottles of water, trash cans even plants they ripped from the ground at police.
“After listening to remarks made by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Putney today, we have more questions than answers about Keith’s death”.
Mr Scott was the third black man killed by police in a week.
Sixteen officers were injured late on Tuesday and early Wednesday as police in riot gear clashed with demonstrators who hurled stones, set fires and briefly blocked an interstate highway.
Charlotte police tweeted that four officers were hurt during the second night of unrest Wednesday night, but said none of the injuries were considered life-threatening. Police responded with tear gas and concussion grenades.
The black officer who shot Scott, Brently Vinson, has been placed on administrative leave as is standard procedure in such cases.
Police on Twitter said the shooting was “civilian on civilian” and said Charlotte police did not fire shots. Police reports state that Scott was armed when he was asked to get out of his vehicle. Police said Scott got out of his auto “armed with a firearm and posed an imminent deadly threat to the officers”. Many demonstrators did not believe city officials’ assertion that officers did not shot the protester. A gun was recovered at the scene. “The victim was shot while he stood between two ministers, and we believe he was shot by police”. We say stop the war on Black America.
Putney said he is working to honor the request from the family of Scott to view the video.
Instead, Putney said, resources will be used to keep the peace should any more protests erupt into violence. “I can tell you we did not find a book”, he said.
Black activists and pastors called for an economic boycott of the city, and the American Civil Liberties Union urged police to release body and dashboard camera footage of the incident.
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“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.
