On Thursday, protesters marched in Charlotte for a third night over the fatal police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott – remaining largely peaceful as they made their way down the streets.
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Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts says she expects the citywide curfew to be in place for multiple days until officials determine they no longer need it.
After peacefully circling the city’s business district for several hours, several dozen demonstrators climbed onto Interstate 277 and stood in the middle of the highway.
A black Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officer on Tuesday killed Keith Scott, 43, who had been seen entering a vehicle with a handgun, Chief Kerr Putney said at a news conference.
Hundreds marched to the city police station carrying signs saying “Stop killing us” and “Resistance is handsome”, but the atmosphere was far calmer than the previous two nights. Protests broke out in the city following the police shooting of African-American man named Keith Lamont Scott on Tuesday. They then continued marching as police officers watched. One factor affecting the timing, she said, is that investigators want to record witness’ accounts, and that they don’t want witnesses’ recollections altered by what they see on the videos. He told reporters the video will be made public when he believes there is a “compelling reason” to do so. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Thursday, prosecutors charged a white officer with manslaughter for killing an unarmed black man on a city street last week.
Police have said that Scott was shot to death Tuesday by a black officer after he disregarded loud, repeated warnings to drop his gun.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney had originally said he didn’t plan to release police video footage of the shooting.
Chief Putney said police footage “does not give me absolute, definitive, visual evidence that would confirm that a person was pointing a gun”. However, he did agree with the family on one point: it’s unclear from the videos if Scott was holding a gun or a book, as some protesters claim. “It is impossible to discern from the videos what, if anything, Mr. Scott is holding in his hands”.
The family says the videos do not show what was in Scott’s hands when he was shot.
“It is not a very clear picture and the gun in question is a small gun”. “If you think we should display a victim’s worst day for public consumption, that is not the transparency I’m speaking of”.
The video shows Scott calmly obeying police orders and walking slowly backwards raising up his arms, the family’s lawyer said.
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An AFP correspondent at the scene reported several hundred demonstrators milling around the downtown area of the southern United States city for a third consecutive night, amid a strong police presence.
