On the cellphone footage that was first published by NBC, The New York Times, and other news outlets, Rakeyia Scott is heard pleading with her husband to be safe – and for the police not to shoot him.
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Hillary Clinton said Friday that the police video of the fatal shooting of a black man by Charlotte police should be released immediately as she announced and then abruptly postponed plans to make a pre-debate visit to the embattled North Carolina city. The family continued to urge officials to release their own recordings of the slaying.
The wife Keith Lamont Scott has released a shocking video showing her husband’s last few moments.
After shots are fired, she yells, “Did you shoot him?”, “He better not be f–ing dead” and “He better live!” “He just took his medicine”, she tells officers.
Democratic state Sen. Karl Allen, of Greenville, who co-sponsored the bill, said the goal was to protect the privacy of those who appear on body camera footage.
“Drop the gun”, an officer screams as the wife tries to explain her husband’s condition. “He has a TBI (traumatic brain injury)”, Rakeyia Scott says. “And if possible, I would encourage them to come at a later date”.
The two-minute footage, which does not show the shooting itself, was taken by the wife of the victim, Keith Lamont Scott. “Come on out [of] the auto”, she says, seconds before saying in an increasingly louder voice, “Keith, don’t do it. Keith, Keith, don’t you do it!”.
Police chief Putney said the footage does not provide “absolute definitive visual evidence that would confirm that a person is pointing a gun”, but that it indicates the officer was justified in shooting Scott.
Authorities were bracing Friday for yet another night of clashes, with an increased presence of National Guard troops at dusk. Officials have since implemented a curfew that runs from midnight-6 a.m.
As depicted in the eyewitness video, the scene plays out under bright sunlight, from a vantage point that’s a short distance from the confrontation between Keith Lamont Scott and Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers that began in the tree-lined parking lot where Scott reportedly had a habit of sitting in a vehicle to wait for his son to get off the bus from school. But the Scott family deserves answers.
Roberts said an attorney for the city told her that the law will not affect decisions about whether to release the videos in Scott’s killing, because the law was not in effect when the shooting happened.
But Chief Kerr Putney continued Friday to refuse to release the video, which could resolve wildly different accounts of the shooting of 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott.
SCOTT: “Keith, don’t let them break the windows – come on out the vehicle”. At one point, she tells her husband to get out of the vehicle so that the police do not break the windows.
The Associated Press reported that some demonstrators were heard chanting “release the tape” and “we want the tape”.
The family saw two videos Thursday and, through a statement from their attorney, said that they would like the video released as well.
The new law does not define police videos as public or personnel records, but said they can only be released to the public by a judge if the judge approves an outside request demanding its release.
“Hands up”, is what can be heard from the outset on the video.
“When he was shot and killed, Mr. Scott’s hands were by his side, and he was slowly walking backward”, he said.
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The officer involved in the shooting, Betty Shelby, turned herself in early on Friday and was released on $50,000 bond.
