On Fox News, Charlotte police confirmed at least one fatal shooting Wednesday night, as cameras caught people looting downtown businesses.
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Sixteen officers were injured late on Tuesday and early Wednesday as police in riot gear clashed with demonstrators who hurled stones, set fires and briefly blocked an interstate highway. A black plainclothes officer in a vest emblazoned “Police” shot Scott after the officer and other uniformed members of the force made “loud, clear” demands that he drop the gun, the chief said.
Vinson has worked for Charlotte-Mecklenburg police for two years.
City officials initially tweeted that the injured person had died and that the fatal shots were fired by another civilian.
“These tragic incidents have once again left Americans with feelings of sorrow, anger and uncertainty, ” Lynch said.
Here’s video of the incident.
The latest trouble began with a peaceful rally that turned violent after several hundred demonstrators, chanting, “Black lives matter” and “No justice, no peace”, marched through downtown with brief stops at a black church, police headquarters and a large entertainment venue called the EpiCentre.
Putney said evidence and witnesses support the officers’ claim that Scott was armed.
Rakeiya Scott, the wife of Keith Scott, warned against violence on Wednesday, asking people to “protest peacefully”.
The officer has been placed on paid administrative leave, Mayor Jennifer Roberts said. The family is “devastated” and has “more questions than answers about Keith’s death”, Scott said in a statement.
The Charlotte City Council said in a statement that the unidentified man was on life support after what city officials attributed to a “civilian on civilian” confrontation. Officers used tear gas, and then a reporter heard one shot and saw a man lying in the street near the hotel entrance. The officer who shot him, Brentley Vinson, 26, also is black.
The tense standoff continued as police fired small canisters of tear gas into the protesters. “We rise and fall together”, she said.
The ACLU called on the police department to “promptly” release the videos “in the interest of transparency and accountability”.
In Charlotte, two sharply divergent accounts emerged of the death of the black man at the hands of police.
“You don’t have to actually wait until a handgun is pointed at you because you’re talking milliseconds of a decision as to whether you’re going to pull your trigger, or that individual is going to pull their trigger”, Roderick said.
Some protesters banged on glass windows, others threw objects at police and stood on cars as police appeared to fire tear gas, prompting demonstrators to run.
Newton went on to say, “From being a black person, there is a lot of black people that don’t do right by black people, so you can’t be a hypocrite and just say ‘Oh a white man or a white police officer killed a black man.’ Now that’s still messed up and I’m not sitting up here and saying that’s ok”. “What we want to do is show we’re not risky”, he said. “He stepped out, posing a threat to the officers”. “This is why the issue of Black Lives Matter is important”.
Charlotte’s mayor, however, said she does not believe the new law will apply to the footage and said she’s asked the chief to show it to her and a small group of community leaders such as the NAACP chair.
A line of police officers wearing riot helmets and carrying shields have been approached at times by angry protesters.
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Yesterday afternoon, 100 students, mostly African-American, participated in a “lay-in” protesting police brutality, singing gospel songs.
