Police Chief Kerr Putney announced the arrest Friday during a press conference held by Charlotte government officials.
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Protesters massed on the Charlotte’s streets for a third night Thursday, though the demonstrations were peaceful.
Protesters here were peaceful early Thursday night but, as the night went on, they grew tense as police in riot gear blocked roads as the crowds grew restive.
Earlier in the week, the Charlotte protests turned violent, with demonstrators attacking reporters and others, setting fires and smashing windows of hotels, office buildings and restaurants.
Major Gerald Smith of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department told Reuters that police would not enforce the curfew imposed by the city as long as the protests remained peaceful.
But Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney said earlier in the day the footage of Scott’s killing could undermine the investigation. The Scott family attorney said it’s impossible to tell what, if anything, Scott was holding.
“They shot my daddy ’cause he’s black, ‘” she said. A suspect was arrested, but police provided few details. “What I can tell you is that when taken with the totality of all the other evidence, it supports what we’ve heard and the version of the truth that we gave about the circumstances of what happened that led to the death of [Keith Scott]”, he said. Critics say it would prevent the sort of transparency that is needed to defuse public anger in the wake of police shootings.
Charlotte’s police chief says there is at least one video from a body camera and one other video from a dashboard camera that captured the deadly shooting of a black man by an officer.
Scott’s family has repeatedly said he did not have a gun. The lawyer has also stated that Scott did not own a gun.
“He stepped out, posing a threat to the officers, and Officer Brentley Vinson subsequently fired his weapon, striking the subject”, Putney said, adding that police acted heroically in trying to stem the protests that followed.
“It’s somewhat hypocritical to cry out against violence when you pass violent policies”, said Reverend William Barber, head of the North Carolina NAACP. “If you are going to release information, release everything”.
Violence rocked the previous two nights, leaving one man dead after police said a civilian shot him during Wednesday’s protest.
“It is not a very clear picture, and the gun in question is a small gun and it was not easy to see with the way the motion was happening”, she told Anderson Cooper 360.
Putney let Scott’s family view the video but said he would not release it publicly pending an investigation, which has been handed over to the State Bureau of Investigations.
City officials said police did not shoot the man and no arrests have been made over 26-year-old Justin Carr’s death.
“When he was shot and killed, Mr. Scott’s hands were by his side and he was slowly walking backwards”, the family said.
Putney said he has seen two videos, presumably the same ones, and he said they are inconclusive.
Meanwhile in Tulsa, Oklahoma the family of Terence Crutcher say they will not be satisfied until the officer who killed him is convicted.
Police claimed Scott, who was waiting in his auto for his son’s school bus, got out of the vehicle with a handgun and refused to obey orders to drop the weapon.
“While police did give him several commands, he did not aggressively approach them or raise his hands at members of law enforcement at any time”.
The video, taken by Scott’s wife, Rakeyia, and published by NBC News and The New York Times, does not display the shooting itself.
(AP Photo/Gerry Broome). Police stand by a damaged storefront stemming from overnight protests following Tuesday’s police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott in Charlotte, N.C., Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016.
Protesters began gathering again on Thursday after nightfall, with some 200 people marching to chants of “release the video” and “Whose streets?”
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The two deaths were the latest in a series of police shootings over the last couple of years that have raised questions about racial bias in USA law enforcement.
