Watch live: Protests in Charlotte after police release video of officer-involved shootingIn the dash cam video, Scott is seen exiting his auto.
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The Scott family is asking the police to release all of the videos.
A dashboard camera from a police vehicle showed Scott, killed on Tuesday, exiting his auto and backing away from it. Police shout to him to drop the gun, but it is not clear that he has anything in his hand.
North Carolina police chief says release of police shooting video footage to be made within half hour adding that Scott was ‘absolutely in possession of a handgun’.
The two-minute, 16-second clip does not show the shooting itself, but captures the moments leading up to it, as Mr Scott’s wife pleads with officers not to open fire.
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.
Putney said that the video would be released via a web link in the next 30 minutes. “There is no definitive evidence in this video that there’s anything in his hand and what that object is”, said Scott family attorney Justin Bamberg. Gov. Four shots are heard, and he falls to the ground.
“Unfortunately we are left with far more questions than we have answers”, Ray Dotch, Scott’s brother-in-law, said. He was an American citizen who deserved better.
“I stated throughout the process that I was unwilling to deviate from that stance”, Putney said.
The dashboard camera footage starts with two officers pointing their guns at Scott, who is inside the SUV with the doors closed and windows rolled up. “I have been assured by the State Bureau of Investigation that the release will have no material impact on the independent investigation since most of the known witnesses have been interviewed”, the statement read.
“Officer Vinson perceived Mr. Scott’s actions and movements as an imminent physical threat to himself and the other officers”, police said. On Saturday, he said that after speaking with state investigators he concluded the video could now be released without “adversely impacting” the investigation.
“Yes, based on the totality of what we see, he absolutely was in possession of a handgun”, Putney said.
Another lawyer for the Scott family, Charles Monnett, said, “We don’t know enough of the facts to know whether this officer should be charged”.
Scott, 43, was killed Tuesday while police were serving a warrant at The Village at College Downs apartment complex on Old Concord Road, in northeast Charlotte. They said Scott pulled into the parking lot and parked beside the unmarked police vehicle officers were in, then began rolling what they believed to be a marijuana “blunt”. “A short time later, Officer Vinson observed Mr. Scott hold a gun up”.
The narrative says Scott didn’t respond to repeated commands to drop his weapon.
Amid anxiety and unease over the shooting of Scott, demonstrations in Charlotte have gone from violent to peaceful, although demands to see the police video remained a chief concern of protesters.
Audio in the body camera footage can’t be heard until after Scott is on the ground.
Two other videos of the scene had come out on Friday: one that Scott’s wife, Rakeyia, took before, during and after the shooting; and another, unattributed, that shows police moving around Scott’s body afterward. The officer is also black.
Scott’s widow released her cell phone recording of the shooting – the first to be released publicly – on Friday. The National Guard was called in as part of the emergency declaration.
On Wednesday night, uptown storefronts were damaged, and a protester who was shot died the next day.
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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.
