The actual moment of the shooting of 43-year-old Keith Scott, a father of seven, is not seen in the two-minute video, which was recorded by the slain man’s wife, Rakeyia, and released to U.S. media on Friday.
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Scott’s death was the latest in a long string of controversial killings of black people by US police that have stirred an intense debate on race and justice and unleashed waves of protests and riots.
Forty-four people were arrested after Wednesday’s protests, and one protester who was shot died at the hospital Thursday.
Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts signed documents to keep the curfew in effect from midnight until 6 a.m. each day until the state of emergency declared by the governor ends.
Clinton on Sunday will visit Charlotte, N.C., where police killed a black man earlier this week, NBC News reported.
This differed from his message a day earlier, when he said the public shouldn’t expect the videos’ release.
President Barack Obama called for understanding as he celebrated the opening of the Smithsonian’s African American museum in Washington this weekend. I know that f***ing much. “I sympathize. I empathize”.
Demonstrators initially took to the streets Tuesday after police fatally shot Keith Lamont Scott, 43, a black man whom officers claimed was armed.
“Don’t shoot him. Don’t shoot him, he has no weapon”. He has no weapon! According to the New York Times, Rakeyia Scott told police her husband has a traumatic brain injury but: “He’s not going to do anything to you guys”.
Scott was the 214th black person killed by USA police this year out of an overall total of 821, according to Mapping Police Violence, a group created out of the protest movement. Vinson was not carrying a body camera, police said. Rakeyia Scott can be heard urging officers to not shoot her husband and begging her husband to comply with officer commands.
“Keith, don’t let them break the windows. Come on out [of] the vehicle”, she says, seconds before saying in an increasingly louder voice, “Keith, don’t do it. Keith, Keith, don’t you do it!”.
Seconds later shots ring out in the clip, and Mrs Scott rushes forward shouting: “Did you shoot him?”
RAKEYIA SCOTT: He doesn’t have a gun.
“Did you shoot him?”
Scott’s family has viewed the police footage and are leading calls for it to be made public.
The smartphone footage filmed by his wife Rakeyia Scott, released by her lawyers to media including AFP, will add to mounting pressure on Charlotte authorities to make the video public. He told reporters on Friday that releasing the video now could harm the investigation into the shooting, now being led by the state.
In the days leading up to the debate, both Clinton and Trump have been confronted with questions about police violence after the North Carolina shooting and a separate incident in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where a white police officer was charged with manslaughter in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man whose vehicle had broken down in the middle of the street.
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Initial police documents showed that several officers who witnessed the shooting appeared to give misleading information to investigators, with one account stating that Jason Van Dyke, the white officer in the case, had been injured by McDonald in the shooting. After watching the video, Scott’s family attorney said they could not determine if he had a weapon when he was approached by police.
