It’s not apparent in the video if he’s holding anything shortly before he was shot.
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Charlotte is the latest USA city to be shaken by protests and recriminations over the death of a black man at the hands of police, a list that includes Baltimore, Milwaukee, Chicago, New York and Ferguson, Missouri.
After the police vehicle dashboard camera and police body-cam videos were released, a fifth day of protests against Scott’s fatal shooting was largely peaceful.
Charlotte is the latest US city to be shaken by protests and recriminations over the death of a black man at the hands of police, a list that includes Baltimore, Milwaukee, Chicago, New York and Ferguson, Missouri.
So the family says the man shot was reading a book and didn’t even own a gun, while a representative of the Fraternal Order of Police says he could see the man wearing an ankle holster.
He also said that his officers didn’t break the law but noted that the State Bureau of Investigation is continuing its investigation. Police say he was, while his family says he was sitting in his vehicle reading a book when officers approached him. “It is impossible to discern from the videos what, if anything, Mr. Scott is holding in his hands”, says the family’s attorney. “If we would all take a step back and have the courage and passion as these three young ladies, we might actually begin to make a difference in America”.
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.
“Don’t shoot him! He has no weapon” she cries as police yell at Scott, “Drop the gun!” The officer then moves and Scott is out of view until he is seen lying on the ground.
Police explained that in the incident two plain-clothes officers had been preparing to serve a warrant on someone else when Scott pulled up and parked next to them. After he falls to the ground, Mr Scott can be heard moaning weakly as officers handcuff him.
The Asheville Citizen-Times reports (http://avlne.ws/2d7B5p3) that Pence addressed the shooting death of Keith Lamont Scott when he spoke Saturday to a Christian coalition of about 200 members of the House School Legal Defense Association in Black Mountain. “There is no definitive visual evidence that he had a gun in his hand”, Putney said.
Protests in Charlotte turned violent Wednesday as demonstrators attacked reporters and others, set fires and smashed windows of hotels, office buildings and restaurants in the city’s bustling business district. The troubles in Charlotte reverberated on the USA presidential campaign trail, with Republican candidate Donald Trump suggesting that drug use in the inner city was somehow responsible.
It’s unfortunate this man was shot and killed but it’s tragic that people are rioting to express their outrage when there are such significant inconsistencies over what we’re being told about what happened. The first black president of the United States cut the ribbon to inaugurate the striking 400,000-square-foot (37,000-square-meter) bronze-clad edifice before thousands of spectators gathered in the U.S. capital at a time of growing racial friction. The star-studded public ceremony, just four months before Obama leaves office, included Stevie Wonder and Oprah Winfrey. “I’m an African-American and I’m not happy how the justice has been dealt with over the years, and the state of oppression in our community, but we also as black people have to do right by ourselves”.
In explaining why he was releasing the footage after initially refusing to do so, Putney said people “want to see the facts, objective facts”. “It is precisely of that discomfort that we learn and grow and harness our collective power to make this nation more flawless”.
On Sunday, protesters led by a man with a bullhorn across the street from Bank of America Stadium were surrounded by at least two dozen police officers on bicycles.
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The officer who shot Scott, Brentley Vinson, is black.
