North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency Wednesday and initiated steps to deploy the National Guard after a second night of rioting in Charlotte.
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According to the Guardian, a protester was injured after being shot by another protester on Wednesday night as the level of unrest in Charlotte escalated, with police firing canisters of tear gas amidst scenes of looting, vandalism and violence in the central business district.
The second night of violent protests added Charlotte to the list of USA cities that have erupted in violence over the death of a black man at the hands of police. Charlotte police tweeted they were not involved in Wednesday night’s shooting.
Putney said Scott was armed and no book was found at the scene.
Authorities have not released any video of the incident but the city’s mayor said she would view the footage on Thursday.
The unrest turned violent after a peaceful vigil to mark the previous day’s shooting death of African-American Keith Scott at the hands of Charlotte police.
This story has been corrected with Charlotte officials saying the man shot during the protest is on life support and is not dead.
North Carolina’s governor later declared a state of emergency amid the disturbances and said the National Guard and state Highway Patrol troopers would be sent in to help police in Charlotte restore and maintain order.
Witnesses told NBC Charlotte’s Ty Chandler that a man was shot, but did not see the person who fired the shots.
The Hyatt House Hotel in downtown went into lockdown as protesters tossed bricks through the window.
Six officers suffered minor injuries, paramedics said.
“My daddy is dead!” the woman screams on the video, which has not been authenticated by The Associated Press.
Neighbours, though, claimed the officer who fired was white and that Mr Scott had his hands in the air.
He said officers were serving arrest warrants on another person when they saw Mr Scott get out of a vehicle with a handgun.
The three uniformed officers had body cameras; the plainclothes officer did not, police said.
“We’ve got brothers and sisters and children and fathers who think we’re not going to live to see the next day”.
John Barnett, who runs a civil rights group called True Healing Under God, or THUG, warned that the video might be the only way for the 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”.
Other people banged angrily on the front doors and chanted “No justice, no peace”, and “Fuck the police”. Protesters rushed police in riot gear at a downtown Charlotte hotel and of. Others set fire to trash cans.
Annette Albright, who attended the protests, said those misbehaving need direction.
While the vigil was peaceful – several attendees brought their children – the atmosphere changed dramatically once demonstrators walked to the nearby police headquarters, where one protester pulled the American flag to the bottom of its flagpole.
Putney told Fox News: “We’re trying to disperse the crowd”.
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Journalists were not spared, either.
