A second video, taken with an officer’s body camera, fails to capture the shooting.
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A video taken by Scott’s wife and released to the public on Friday did not provide an answer on whether Scott had a gun.
Scott’s family has previously released two minutes of smartphone footage filmed by his wife, which does not show the shooting itself and does not conclusively answer the question of whether he was armed. He falls to the ground after four shots are heard.
The footage of the fatal police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott was released amid days of protests, including an outpouring by hundreds earlier Saturday, which coalesced around demands for the public to see the video.
A lab analysis conducted of the gun crime scene investigators recovered at the scene revealed the presence of Scott’s DNA and his fingerprints on the gun. He said that and other evidence they were releasing would corroborate their account of how things unfolded, including that Keith Lamont Scott was holding a gun when he was shot.
“You can’t clearly identify what, if anything, is in his hand”, attorney Justin Bamberg, who represents the Scott family, said at news conference Saturday evening.
Scott’s family has said he had no gun, that he was reading a book and was being non-aggressive when police were surrounding him.
“But the moment that he is shot, it appears as though he is not aggressively moving towards law enforcement”, Bamberg said. “He is doing the opposite: He is passively stepping back”.
Ray Dotch, Scott’s brother-in-law, said some reporters had been looking into Scott’s background but added that background shouldn’t matter. “But what we do see is compelling evidence that, when you put all the pieces together, supports that”, Putney said.
The officers initially noticed that the 43-year-old was rolling a marijuana joint in his vehicle – and then saw him raise a gun, the police said.
Mr Putney said two video clips – one from the dashcam, one from the body cameras – are being released immediately, with more later when the prosecutor has made a definitive decision. “He appears to have his hands by his side”. The body camera footage doesn’t show the moment the shots are fired, and Scott next comes into view already on the ground.
Police Chief Kerr Putney said that Scott was “absolutely in possession of a handgun”.
“Today I’ve decided we are at a stage where I can release additional information without hindering the integrity of the investigation”, Putney said.
The videos were released to a number of USA media and posted online.
The officer moves beside a white truck and pauses next to a plainclothes officer before running around to his left to go around to the other side of the vehicles.
In one of the police videos, a dashboard-mounted camera from a squad auto showed Scott exiting his vehicle and then backing away from it. Police shout to him to drop a gun, but it is not clear that Scott is holding anything.
Scott then exited the SUV with the gun and backed away from the vehicle while continuing to ignore officers’ repeated loud verbal commands to drop the gun.
Shortly afterwards gunshots can be heard, but the actual shooting is not caught on camera.
Scott was shot and killed at a Charlotte apartment complex during an encounter with police searching for another person wanted for arrest.
“Everybody is not a killer and they need to stop judging all young black men as one”, she said. At one point, she tells her husband to get out of the auto so police don’t break the windows.
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Scott’s family has said he was disabled after being in a near-death motorcycle crash previous year.
