It was incredibly hard for members of the Scott family to view these videos, but as a matter of the greater good and transparency, the Scott family asks that the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department publicly immediately release both of the videos they watched today. But Scott’s family has said that he was unarmed and holding a book.
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Putney said Friday that releasing it could inflame the situation and damage trust in the community.
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. “The question is on the timing”. His family was shown the footage Thursday and demanded that police release it to the public.
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. But police said Scott was armed and no book was found at the scene. Putney said Friday that video led investigators to a suspect who was arrested, but he provided few other details.
(AP Photo/Chuck Burton). Demonstrators are confronted by police at a hotel during a protest of Tuesday’s fatal police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott in Charlotte, N.C. on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2016.
Hundreds were expected throughout the evening as Charlotte-Mecklenburg police prepared for another long night, but hopefully a more peaceful one.
City officials said police did not shoot the man and no arrests have been made over 26-year-old Justin Carr’s death.
The large employers in the city kept their employees home Thursday, after protesters damaged a number of buildings in the downtown area.
President Barack Obama says recent reports of unarmed African Americans being shot by police “should be a source of concern for all Americans”. But he said other evidence supports the police version that Scott had a weapon and pointed it at officers.
Police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd. Officials later said he was still alive, but in critical condition at an area hospital.
In Charlotte, North Carolina, two nights of riots followed the death of Keith Scott, 43, on Tuesday, who refused orders to drop a gun he was holding, according to police.
An AFP correspondent at the scene reported several hundred demonstrators milling around the downtown area of the southern U.S. city for a third consecutive night, amid a strong police presence. The North Carolina National Guard helped patrol the city Thursday.
The curfew makes exceptions for law enforcement, medical, utility and news media.
In contrast to the tension in Charlotte, calm reigned in the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, where police released a video of the fatal shooting of Terence Crutcher, shot by police last week after his vehicle broke down on a highway. “The most egregious example was, of course, in Ferguson, where police showed up in military gear”. Bowzer was arrested and charged with injury to real property.
Protesters in the southern United States city fled after police with rifles fired the tear gas and what appeared to be rubber bullets, an AFP reporter on the scene said.
There were contentious moments between demonstrators and police, but it was a far cry from the looting and destruction that was seen Wednesday night.
Protesters Thursday night chanted “We want the tape!” and questioned why the public couldn’t see the police footage.
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Relatives of the father-of-seven watched the two videos of his shooting by a black police officer on Tuesday afternoon, after they requested officials in the city of Charlotte to let them see them.
