As previously reported, police in Charlotte, N.C. shot and killed Keith Lamont Scott on Tuesday.
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A dashboard camera from a police auto showed Keith Scott, killed on Tuesday, exiting his vehicle and backing away from it. Police shout to him to drop the gun, but it is not clear that he has anything in his hand.
A demonstrator protesting the police shooting of Keith Scott hugs a police officer in riot gear outs … Along the sideline inside the game, Carolina safety Marcus Ball raised his fist during the national anthem.
The Scott family and some neighborhood witnesses claimed Scott did not have a gun, but was sitting in his vehicle reading a book while awaiting the arrival of his son on a school bus when police approached. A short time later, an officer observed Scott hold a gun up.
Scott was killed Tuesday by a black police undercover police officer trying to serve a warrant on someone else. “It is impossible to discern from the videos what, if anything, Mr. Scott is holding in his hands”, says the family’s attorney. Four shots are heard in quick succession, and he crumples to the ground mortally wounded.
On Saturday, police yielded to pressure from politicians, community leaders and protesters to release footage of the shooting, but the images were inconclusive as to whether Scott actually carried a gun, as authorities have claimed.
The city became the latest flashpoint in two years of tense protests over USA police killings of black men, many of them unarmed.
Putney said he chose to release the video Saturday because, “I now have assurance that there is no adverse impact on the investigation”. Scott’s family says he didn’t own a gun nor carry one.
Ray Dotch, Scott’s brother-in-law, said some reporters had been looking into Scott’s background but added that background shouldn’t matter.
The dashboard camera footage opens with a police auto pulling up as two officers point their guns at Scott, who is inside the SUV with the doors closed and windows rolled up.
“Police said officers trying to serve an arrest warrant for a different person caught site of Scott with marijuana and a gun, sitting in a auto in a parking lot”.
Both videos show Scott moving at a measured pace with his hands at his sides.
The weekend protests come despite police releasing footage on Saturday of the moment Scott was shot by a Charlotte police officer.
“When you’re in possession of marijuana and in possession of a gun, that is a public safely issue”, Putney said. “Officers are absolutely not being charged by me, but again, there’s another investigation ongoing”, he said. They were surrounded by at least two dozen police officers on bicycles. Most said after watching the police videos that they were struck by what appeared to be little threat Scott pose the officers.
A second video, taken with an officer’s body camera, fails to capture the shooting. Then shots break out and Scott drops to the ground. The dead man’s family reportedly saw two police videos of the incident.
The video was released to the media at 6:30 p.m. “Putney and CMPD to be more transparent and forthcoming around the policies and practices regarding the murders of black and brown people in Charlotte”, Zakiya Scott, a spokeswoman for Charlotte Uprising, told The Huffington Post in an email.
The curfew was imposed Thursday after demonstrations over the past week have become violent, with protesters looting and vandalizing businesses, and the National Guard was called out to help maintain order.
Demonstrators also gathered in front of the Omni Hotel, where a protester was fatally shot on Wednesday night.
The next three nights of protests were free of property damage and violence, with organizers stressing a message of peace at the end of the week.
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The controversial death has made Charlotte, North Carolina´s largest city and a financial centre, the latest flashpoint in two years of tense protests over USA police killings of black men, a lot of them unarmed.
