Demonstrators chanted “release the tape” and “we want the tape” while briefly blocking an intersection near Bank of America headquarters and later climbing the steps in front of the city government center.
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Protesters in Charlotte who spilled onto an interstate highway are being pushed back by police officers in riot gear who are deploying tear gas, according to The Charlotte Observer.
“It was incredibly hard for members of the Scott family to view these videos, but as a matter of the greater good and transparency, the Scott family asks that the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department publicly immediately release both of the videos they watched today”, the family statement read.
A spokesman for the Charlotte Fraternal Order of Police told CNN on Thursday he had seen video from the scene showing Scott holding a gun.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney had originally said he didn’t plan to release police video footage of the shooting.
The video will be made public when he believes there is a “compelling reason” to do so, he told reporters Thursday. “I can tell you we did not find a book”, the chief said.
“I’m not going to jeopardize the investigation”, he told reporters.
Mayor Jennifer Roberts announced on Thursday night that she had imposed a curfew on the southern city from midnight to 6 a.m. local time.
City officials opted against a curfew.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) – A third night of protests over a fatal police shooting in Charlotte gave way to quiet streets early Friday after the city’s mayor enacted a curfew and rifle-toting members of the National Guard arrived to guard the city’s business district.
The killing was the latest in a long series of controversial fatal police shootings of black men across the United States, sparking more than two years of protests asserting racial bias and excessive force by police and giving rise to the Black Lives Matter movement.
A protester shot on Wednesday died on Thursday, nine people were injured, and 44 were arrested in riots on Wednesday and Thursday morning.
Several buildings were damaged in the chaos, including the NASCAR Hall of Fame and the downtown Charlotte Hyatt hotel.
In another development, a protester, identified as 26-year-old Justin Carr, who was shot in the head by another civilian during Wednesday night’s unrest died Thursday.
Scott, 43, was fatally shot by police Tuesday as officers were searching for another person. His family and a witness say he was holding a book, not a firearm, when he was killed.
He has said the video doesn’t definitively show whether or not Scott was pointing a gun at police. But he added: “When taken in the totality of all the other evidence, it supports what we said”.
Relatives of Scott – who was married with seven children – have said not only that he was not armed, but also that he was disabled.
“It is impossible to discern from the videos what, if anything, Mr Scott is holding in his hands”, the statement said.
Video footage appears to show protesters raiding tractor-trailers, burning their contents on I-85 and damaging police vehicles.
State Senator Gerald Malloy said in a phone interview that lawmakers made the exceptions to the law very broad, allowing law enforcement to make the decision of whether or not to release video. Police did not shoot the man, city officials said.
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A state law that takes effect October 1 would back that position, barring release of police video without a court order.
