The cell phone video does not clearly show the exact moment Scott was shot by police on Tuesday. Charlotte police refused under mounting pressure Thursday to release video that could resolve wildly different accounts of the shoo. In the dash cam video, Scott is seen exiting his auto. Four shots are heard, and he falls to the ground.
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The police footage seems to show him getting out of his vehicle and walking backwards with his hands down.
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.
Putney said that he made a decision to release the footage after receiving assurances from the State Bureau of Investigation that it would not impact their independent probe of the shooting. One of the attorneys representing the Scott family, Charles G. Monnett, said they released the video “in the name of truth and transparency”. “He’s passively stepping back”. Police said Scott had a gun, though residents have said he was unarmed.
He said Scott was shot after he did not follow police commands to drop his weapon. Officers have said Scott had a gun, according to a police statement. When Scott comes into view, his hands are at his side and he’s standing beside his SUV.
A second video, taken with an officer’s body camera, fails to capture the shooting.
Police Chief Kerr Putney said Saturday that additional footage will be released. At his news conference, Putney said that his officers didn’t break the law but noted that the State Bureau of Investigation is continuing its investigation.
No officers are being charged for the shooting at this stage.
Video caption Dashcam and bodycam footage released by the police.
Putney said officers were conducting surveillance related to a warrant they meant to serve on someone else, but their attention was drawn to Scott.
The officers saw Scott rolling a marijuana cigar, or blunt, though they didn’t consider it a priority at first, it said.
“So I don’t want anyone to walk away from this conversation today thinking that a video showing he had a gun in any way says that he was guilty of anything”, she said.
In a video released by his wife, she can be heard telling officers repeatedly that he does not have a weapon.
Peaceful protests continued after the video release. The actual shooting is not shown on the video as Rakeyia Scott points her cellphone at the ground and screams, “Did you shoot him?”
The next two nights of protests were free of property damage and violence, with organizers stressing a message of peace at the end of the week.
The controversial death has made Charlotte, North Carolina’s largest city and a financial center, the latest flashpoint in two years of tense protests over USA police killings of black men, majority unarmed. It’s not apparent if he’s holding anything.
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Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina, released some of the department’s tapes of the fatal shooting of Keith Lamont Scott, which has sparked days of protests across the city.
