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Police say man officers shot dead had been given multiple warnings
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A US police chief said yesterday that officers gave a black man clear, multiple warnings to drop a handgun before fatally shooting him.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney told a news conference that officers were searching for a suspect on Tuesday when they saw 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott leave a vehicle with a handgun. He says officers told him to drop the gun and that he got out of the vehicle a second time still carrying the gun. He says the man was shot because he posed a threat.
“It’s time to change the narrative, because I can tell you from the facts that the story’s a little bit different as to how it’s been portrayed so far, especially through social media,” he said.
His comments were an apparent reference to a profanity-laced, hourlong video that a woman claiming to be Scott’s daughter posted to Facebook soon after the shooting, saying her father had an unspecified disability and was unarmed. In it, she appears to be at the shooting scene, which is surrounded by yellow police tape, as she yells at officers.
The black officer who shot Scott, Brently Vinson, has been placed on administrative leave as is standard procedure in such cases. Vinson has been with the department for two years.
Charlotte police officers had gone to an apartment complex on the city’s northeast side about 4pm looking for a suspect with an outstanding warrant when they saw Scott — who was not the suspect they were looking for — inside a car, according to an official statement.
Officers say they saw Scott get out of the car with a gun and then get back in. When they approached, the man exited the car with the gun again. At that point, officers deemed him a threat and at least one fired a weapon.
Scott was taken to Carolinas Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
Detectives recovered a gun at the scene and were interviewing witnesses, the statement said.
Police said protests broke out about 7pm on Tuesday, about three hours after the shooting. Authorities used tear gas to disperse protesters in an overnight demonstration that left about a dozen officers injured in North Carolina’s largest city and shut down part of a highway.
The protests continued into early yesterday morning, when TV footage showed dozens of protesters on Interstate 85 apparently looting semi-trucks and setting their contents on fire on the highway.
Putney said 16 officers suffered injuries and police cars were damaged after people began throwing rocks. One officer was hit in the face. Photos and TV video showed police firing tear gas to break up the crowd. Some officers were in riot gear.
Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts appealed for calm and patience while the shooting is investigated.
By 5am yesterday, the streets were quiet with no protesters in sight and traffic was moving again. Broken glass and rocks littered the ground where a police car had been vandalized. Less than 5 miles away, wooden pallets barricaded the entrance of a Wal-Mart that had apparently been looted.
Meanwhile, in Tulsa, hundreds of people rallied outside police headquarters calling for the firing of police officer Betty Shelby, who shot 40-year-old Terence Crutcher on Friday during a confrontation in the middle of a road that was captured on police dashcam and helicopter video.
Shelby’s attorney has said Crutcher was not following the officer’s commands and Shelby was concerned because he kept reaching for his pocket as if he were carrying a weapon. An attorney representing Crutcher’s family says he committed no crime and gave officers no reason to shoot him.
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