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Family may be shown video of Charlotte shooting
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CHARLOTTE’S police chief plans to show video of an officer shooting a black man to the slain man’s family, but the video won’t be immediately released to the public.
Kerr Putney told reporters at a news conference yesterday that the video does not definitively show 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott pointing a gun at anyone.
Putney said he is working to honor the request from Scott’s family to view the video. It’s unclear when or if the video might be released publicly.
“Right now my priority is the people who really are the victims of the shooting,” Putney said. “I’m telling you right now if you think I say we should display a victim’s worst day for consumption, that is not the transparency I’m speaking of.”
The video could be key to resolving the chasm between police, who say Scott refused repeated commands to drop his gun, and residents who say he was unarmed.
Residents say Scott was unarmed, holding only a book, and disabled by a brain injury. But it’s unclear what the body cameras worn by three officers who were present during the shooting may have captured. The plainclothes officer who shot Scott, Brently Vinson, was not wearing a camera. He has been placed on leave, standard procedure in such cases. Vinson is black,
As officials tried to quell protests, at least three major businesses were asking their employees to stay home for the day as the city remained on edge.
Mayor Jennifer Roberts told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that officials were considering a curfew, and she said in an interview with NPR that the timing of the video’s release would depend on how the investigation progresses.
When asked if officials shouldn’t be more transparent, she said: “The transparency would be helpful if the footage is clear and if it covers all the different parts of what happened that evening. Since I haven’t seen it, I’m not certain of that and that may be the case. There were a couple of different body cameras, there was a dash camera, but as you know sometimes those can be not clear.”
North Carolina has a law that takes effect on October 1 requiring a judge to approve releasing police video, and Putney said he doesn’t release video when a criminal investigation is ongoing.
The streets were mostly quiet yesterday, but Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Duke Energy all told employees not to venture into North Carolina’s largest city after Governor Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency on Wednesday night and called in the National Guard after the police chief said he needed the help.
The North Carolina National Guard arrived at a Charlotte armory early yesterday, and Guard vehicles left the armory about 8am.
Federal help also is on the way, with the Justice Department sending a team of trained peacekeepers to Charlotte designed to help resolve community conflict. The department’s Community Relations Service has been deployed to other cities roiled by tense flare-ups between police and residents.
A peaceful prayer vigil on Wednesday night turned into an angry march and then a night of violence after a protester was shot and critically wounded as people charged police in riot gear trying to protect a hotel in Charlotte’s typically vibrant downtown. Police did not shoot the man, city officials said.
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