Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper joined Charlotte’s mayor Friday in calling for police to release their video of Keith Scott’s shooting death.
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Friday’s march through Charlotte’s business district was the fourth night of demonstrations over the shooting of Keith Lamont Scott earlier in the week. Police have claimed Keith Scott had a gun and was an “imminent, deadly threat”.
Central to the protests are the differing accounts between police and Scott’s family over what led to his death. Marchers briefly entered an interstate highway running through the city but quickly returned to the local streets.
The video was taken by Rakeyia Scott and features her pleading with police not to shoot her husband while telling him to listen to officers. His wife maintains that Scott did not have a gun, but police say that he did.
Over the last two years, protesters have filled streets from Milwaukee to Minneapolis, from Ferguson, Missouri, to Baltimore.
RAKEYIA SCOTT: He just took his medicine.
Protesters who have filled the streets to push for the release of video of a fatal police shooting could see their task get much harder if Charlotte authorities do not share the footage within a week. Gunshots can be heard but not seen in her video. It is also not clear from the footage whether he is in possession of a gun.
No gun is visible in the police video, which shows Scott stepping backward when he was shot, according to a family lawyer.
WBTV obtained a photo Wednesday that sources say shows a gun next to Scott’s body after the shooting.
Police say Scott was armed, but witnesses say he held only a book. “Don’t shoot him, he has no weapon!”
Clinton weighed in about the video issue earlier yesterday, tweeting that police should release its footage “without delay”.
Charlotte investigators have said footage from the shooting is now exempt from public records requests because it is part of an ongoing investigation.
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. Roberts also said the videos were “inconclusive” and that the footage released Friday by Scott’s family did not show whether he had something in his hand.
City Police Chief Kerr Putney said it did not provide any evidence.
Curry told CNN that the tape was released because officials would not furnish the police footage to the public. He said “it’s a matter of when” the video will be released. “We need a court order to release it, ‘” she said in a phone interview.
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The case has touched the USA presidential race, with Democrat Hillary Clinton planning to visit Charlotte on Sunday, her campaign said. Clinton now plans to visit on October 2.
