Protests Erupt in Charlotte Following the Police Killing of Keith Lamont Scott
Protests erupted in Charlotte following the police killing of Keith Lamont Scott.
On Tuesday (Sept. 20), Charlotte police fatally shot Scott, who witnesses say was unarmed. This comes on the heels of the police shooting of unarmed black man, Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
This is the sixth Charlotte-Mecklenburg police killing of a civilian in the past year. The Huffington Post reports the shooting took place at an apartment complex roughly a mile from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officers were searching at the complex for someone else who was wanted on an outstanding warrant, police said in a statement. During the search, officers say they saw a man exit a vehicle with a gun, then get back inside. Police approached, and said the man “posed an imminent deadly threat to the officers who subsequently fired their weapon striking the subject,” according to the police statement. The shooting officer has been identified as Officer Brentley Vinson and has been put on paid administrative leave.
However, Scott's sister give a different account, insisting that he didn't have a gun, that he was instead, reading a book. A woman who identified herself as Scott’s daughter captured the aftermath of the shooting on Facebook Live. She and other witnesses said Scott had a disability and did not have a gun, however, The Huffington Post was unable to independently verify the video, or reach the woman. The woman's Facebook page was later disabled but the video remains on YouTube.
“The police just shot my daddy four times for being black,” the woman said.
Following the shooting, protests erupted at the site of the incident, with hundreds of people converging on the scene. More than a dozen officers and members of the press were reportedly injured. Protestors also set fire on the interstate and also allegedly broke into a Walmart, prompting militarized police to block the entrance.
Police Chief Kerr Putney said the investigation is “preliminary” and said both the criminal investigative bureau and internal affairs are involved.
Below are images and video from the protests and the direct aftermath of the shooting.