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Second Night of Charlotte Protests Results In One Person Dead

Scott, 43, was killed Tuesday while police were serving a warrant at The Village at College Downs apartment complex on Old Concord Road.

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After reportedly ignoring orders to drop his weapon, Scott was shot by Officer Brentley Vinson, a two-year member of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. One of the protesters was also in critical condition on life support after being shot by another civilian. The person, who was not identified, is in critical condition and on life support, the city tweeted.

A Charlotte resident, who gave his name only as Howard, told Reuters that the man shot Wednesday night was standing directly in front of him.

One person was shot and gravely wounded on Wednesday in a second night of unrest in Charlotte, North Carolina, officials said, as riot police dispersed unruly protesters after the fatal police shooting of a black man under disputed circumstances.

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency in Charlotte, and says he will send in the national guard. The officer was transported to a hospital with undisclosed injuries. Firefighters rushed in to pull the man to a waiting ambulance.

Protesters began demonstrating again Wednesday evening at police headquarters in Charlotte. Others spray-painted “black lives matters” on business windows while others shattered windows of a building in downtown Charlotte.

The protests erupted amid tension between police and the black community in Charlotte, who are disporportionately affected by law enforcement. Police used tear gas to clear the area, blocking the entrance.

But not all the marchers left.

There were hints earlier Wednesday that Charlotte would suffer a second night of destruction.

The deaths were the latest incidents to raise questions of racial bias in United States law enforcement, and they stoked a national debate on policing ahead of the presidential election in November.

Sixteen officers and several demonstrators were injured in clashes overnight Tuesday, September 20, following Scott’s death, the latest in a string of police-involved killings of black men that have fueled outrage across the United States.

Once the tear gas came, protesters ran shrieking down Trade Street.

A woman claiming to be Scott’s daughter posted a video to Facebook soon after the shooting, saying that her father had an unspecified disability and was unarmed when he was shot. In the footage, she is at the cordoned-off shooting scene, yelling at officers.

“My daddy’s dead! My daddy’s dead!” she screams.

Monroe said black people deserve to be safe in the streets and don’t feel the way in the spate of recent police shootings. One of the men informed officers that he was legally carrying a firearm, and suspecting that the other men might be, too, police searched them.

“I can tell you we did not find a book that has been referenced to”, Putney said.

During a news conference Wednesday morning, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney said Vinson was not wearing a body camera at the time of the shooting.

Charlotte mayor Jennifer Roberts told MSNBC that she will view the video on Thursday, despite not being part of the investigation. No cellphone video has emerged on social media, as happened in other cases around the country.

Court records indicate that Scott had a criminal record including an assault conviction. He was shot by an African-American officer after refusing repeated demands to put down a gun, which was recovered from the scene, Putney said. There were a few protests but no violence.

However, Putney added that he did not know whether Scott “definitively pointed the weapon specifically toward an officer”. “That’s not right”, said neighbor Taheshia Williams.

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Witnesses at the scene, including Scott’s daughter and siblings, said the 43-year-old father of seven was reading a book in his vehicle. I have got to get back to work.

One person shot by civilian as second night of protests in Charlotte turns violent