Charlottte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney has said that 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott refused officers’ repeated commands to drop a gun, but he said during a news conference that the video does not definitely show Scott pointing a gun at anyone.
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An emergency has been declared in the southern American city of Charlotte in the wake of an ongoing unrest ignited by the fatal police shooting of a black man.
The distrust of police continued after Wednesday’s shooting of the protester. The police report says a gun, not a book, was recovered at a scene. In 2013, Charlotte police charged one of their own, Randall Kerrick with voluntary manslaughter within days, after the white officer shot an unarmed black man who had been in a wreck and was looking for help.
The wife of Keith Scott released a statement encouraging protesters to do so peacefully and urging them not to harm police officers, damage property, or loot stores in the name of her husband.
Destructive protests on Tuesday that included shutting down eight-lane Interstate 85 and burning the contents of a tractor-trailer turned violent yesterday. Officials are concerned with whether or not there will be enough police officers to keep the city in order and also keep the stadium secure. Students at the University of North Carolina staged a “die-in” to protest police violence.
Police said they were not responsible for the injury and were trying to break up inter-protester violence. Police responded with rubber bullets, pepper spray, flash grenades and tear gas.
But not all the marchers left. Protesters rushed police in riot gear at a downtown Charlotte hotel and officers have fired tear gas t. Several protesters were arrested during the clashes.
Wednesday was the second day of protests in Charlotte over Scott’s death.
Putney said that Vinson was in plain clothes but wore the police department’s vest at the time of the incident and he did not have a body camera on him.
John Barnett, who runs a civil rights group called True Healing Under God – or THUG – told the Associated Press that releasing the video would be the only way for police to regain the community’s trust. “Just telling us this is still under investigation is not good enough for the windows of the Wal-Mart”. Protesters tried to push their way through into the hotel, where police had blockaded the entrance.
“My daddy is dead!” the woman screams on the video.
One person was shot and four officers were injured in the latest round of violence Wednesday night that followed a peaceful protest. “He got out of his vehicle, he walked back to comply, and all his compliance did was get him murdered”, said Taheshia Williams, whose balcony overlooks the shady parking spot where Scott was Tuesday afternoon.
Police encountered Scott – who was not the person they were seeking – in a auto parked at the building. He also said: “I can tell you we did not find a book”.
After Vinson fired at Scott, the officers called for a medic and performed CPR on Scott.
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The three uniformed officers had body cameras; the plainclothes officer did not, police said. But the chief said he could not release the video because the investigation was still under way. No mobile phone video has emerged on social media, as has happened in other cases around the country.
