Protesters have sought the release of police footage of the shooting earlier this week of Keith Lamont Scott by a police officer.
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Protesters took to Charlotte’s streets for a third straight night and defied a midnight curfew in the USA city early Friday, amid heavy security aimed at preventing more clashes over the fatal police shooting of a black man. “He has no weapon”.
Scott’s wife also can be heard shouting “Keith, Keith, don’t do it”, although it is not clear whether she is directing her comments to her husband or police. “He just took his medicine”. Officials had anxious about a potential escalation of violence because of growing calls by protesters for the police body-camera and dash-cam video of the Tuesday shooting of Keith Lamont Scott.
Scott’s family, which has been permitted to see the police video, the protesters and even Democratic U.S. presidential nominee Hillary Clinton have called for its release.
The march through Charlotte’s business district marked the fourth night of demonstrations over the shooting of Keith Lamont Scott in the city earlier in the week. The family of Scott, 43, was shown that footage Thursday and demanded that police release it to the public. Roy Cooper, the North Carolina attorney general who is running for governor, is calling for the police videos to be released.
A man writes the name of Keith Scott during a protest against the police shooting of Scott in Charlotte, North Carolina. But some witnesses and family members say Scott, who had suffered from a previous traumatic brain injury, did not have a gun and instead was holding a book.
The two-minute, 16-second clip does not show the shooting itself, but captures the moments leading up to it, as Scott’s wife pleads with officers not to open fire. “I do think it would help in terms of transparency to release that footage”, she said in an interview with CNN.
The organizers say Scott was reading a book in his auto before police officers demanded he get out.
Police, so far, have refused to release the video, saying that doing so at this time could compromise the investigation.
As the encounter escalates, she repeatedly urges police: “You better not shoot him”.
“You do see something in his hand, but it’s impossible to make out from the video what it is”. He has said previously that the video will be made public when he believes there is a “compelling reason” to do so.
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CMPD Chief Kerr Putney said police have handed the investigation over to the State Bureau of Investigation, but he was still fielding questions about the video and why police haven’t released it Friday at a news conference.
