Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency late Wednesday night, as violent protests against the police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott continued to rock Charlotte for a second night.
Advertisement
THE NORTH Carolina governor has declared a state of emergency in the city of Charlotte, as unrest continues over the police killing of a black pastor who was allegedly reading a book at the time.
Several businesses in uptown and near the Epicentre were looted and broken into last night as several people protested the shooting death of Keith Scott.
After the shooting, protesters began throwing bottles, dirt clods and fireworks at the officers.
Protests erupted on the streets of Charlotte, N.C. after a 43-year-old black male was shot and killed by police officers.
Authorities had to use tear gas to disperse the protests, which happened after another demonstration in Tulsa, Oklahoma, over the shooting there of an unarmed black man by police.
Police said a gun was recovered but Scott’s family said that’s not true and claim it wasn’t a gun, it was a book. Police said they confronted Scott inside an apartment complex and were forced to shoot.
The deaths were the latest incidents to raise questions of racial bias in U.S. law enforcement, and they stoked a national debate on policing ahead of the presidential election in November.
Officers repeatedly told Scott to drop his handgun, the chief said, but he didn’t. “They engage him, and one of the officers felt a lethal threat and fired his weapon because of that”, he said.
There were hints earlier Wednesday that Charlotte would suffer a second night of destruction.
But the anger over Scott’s death was quickly overtaken when word of Wednesday night’s shooting spread from person to person.
Everything has become a target for protesters and agitators in North Carolina.
Brentley Vinson, the officer who opened fire, was not wearing a body camera, according to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney.
The North Carolina NAACP said in a statement early Thursday that it stood with those mourning in Charlotte.
WSOC-TV reported that the Charlotte shooting had occurred as Vinson and other officers were searching for a suspect on an outstanding arrest warrant.
Advertisement
“We release it when we believe it is a compelling reason, but I’m not going to jeopardize the investigation”, the police chief told reporters. President Barack Obama spoke by telephone on Wednesday with the mayors of Charlotte and Tulsa, a White House official said.
