Charlotte protests continue, with plans to blockade Sunday’s Panthers game.
SEPTEMBER 25, 2016
Keith Lamont Scott with mother Vernita Walker.
VOD UPDATE 3: Charlotte police have released partial videos of the killing of Keith Lamont Scott, (see below) which raise more questions, particularly since they are clearly edited.
Why does the cop in the first segment ask someone to go to his car trunk to get his “bag,” then clarify that saying, his “gun,” after Scott is already dead on the ground and handcuffed? The video then clearly shows a cop handing an object to another and something being tossed on the ground.
Charlotte police reported that a “forensic examination shows Scott’s DNA and fingerprints on the loaded gun retrieved from the scene and that Scott was wearing an ankle holster” according to the AP. It is clear from Mrs. Rakeyiah Scott’s cell phone video below this one that the cops spent a long time maneuvering over Scott’s handcuffed body, giving them plenty of time to put the gun in his hand.
Regarding that cell phone video, the following comment was made on the VOD Facebook page:
Patty Rowell Does anyone else besides me see the officer standing closest to the right of Scott drop something on the ground next to Scott after he is shot during the video? Watch closely. The officer on left is kneeling over victim. The video moves to left and no view of victim. As soon as it goes back with victim and officers in view, the officer standing immediately right of victim drops what appears to be a dark object on the ground.
Rakeyia Scott with her husband of 20 years, Keith Lamont Scott.
UPDATE SEPT. 23, 2016–Rakeyia Scott, wife of Keith Lamont Scott, has released her heart-rending cell phone video of the moments before police shot and killed her husband, the father of seven, in which she tells them, “He has a TMI (Traumatic Brain Injury).” She talks to him, telling him to get out of his car, but the police do not ask her to intercede in whatever situation was happening. Instead they shoot her husband of 20 years to death in front of her eyes. She tells them, “He better not be dead.”
Protests continue for two days after Charlotte police kill Black father Keith Lamont Scott
Justin Carr shot to death, protesters say by police rubber bullet, nine injured, 44 arrested during uprisings
Eyewitness disputes police report that Scott had a gun; family says he was waiting for his son’s school bus while reading a book.
Police let family see video, will not release it to public
Scott the sixth man killed by police in Charlotte-Mecklenberg area this year; Justin Carr makes it the seventh
(VOD: Updated Sept. 23 with inserts from other sources, photos, videos)
September 22, 2016
By Daniel Wallis, Scott Malone
CHARLOTTE, N.C. [One Black protester, Justin Carr, was shot to death in the head,] at least nine people were injured and 44 people were arrested during a second night of violent protests in Charlotte, North Carolina, the city’s police chief said on Thursday, following the fatal police shooting of a [Black father of seven, Keith Lamont Scott.]
[During Wednesday night’s demonstrations, a protester was shot in the head in what the police described as a “civilian on civilian” episode. But some protesters accused the police of opening fire. Early Thursday evening, just about the time a crowd was gathering, the police announced that the man had died earlier in the day and that the department had begun a homicide investigation.
Keith Lamont Scott at right, from family’s GoFundMe page
The police identified the victim as Justin Carr, 26, without elaborating further on his death.–New York Times]
Police used tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades to disperse demonstrators who looted stores and threw rocks, bottles and fireworks.
(GoFundMe Page for Keith L. Scott at https://www.gofundme.com/2q773xg,)
Officials initially said Carr was shot by a civilian, but on Thursday Putney acknowledged some claims he was shot by a law enforcement officer.
“We’re here to seek the truth, so we’re investigating that to find the truth, the absolute truth as best as the evidence can show us,” Putney said.
Four police officers suffered non-life threatening injuries, city officials said.
Justin Carr being carried to the hospital, where he later died. Getty Images
The latest trouble erupted after a peaceful rally earlier in the evening by protesters who reject the official account of how Keith Scott, 43, was gunned down by a black police officer in the parking lot of an apartment complex on Tuesday afternoon.
Justin Carr, killed during protests against police murder of Keith Lamont Scott
The killing was the latest in a long series of controversial fatal police shootings of black men across the United States, sparking more than two years of protests asserting racial bias and excessive force by police and giving rise to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Scott’s killing marked the 214th incident of a black person by police this year, according to Mapping Police Violence, an anti-police violence group created out of the protest movement. There is no national-level government data on police shootings.
(VOD: Go to http://www.killedbypolice.net/killedbypolice.net, which lists 844 killings nationally this year as of Sept. 21 with the killings of Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, Scott and Carr in Charlotte making it 847.)
Authorities say Scott was wielding a handgun and was shot after refusing commands to drop it. His family and a witness say he was holding a book, not a firearm, when he was killed.
[Scott’s grieving relatives watched videos on Thursday of the fatal shooting, a wrenching experience that they said revealed no hint of aggression in him and left the family members convinced that the videos should be made public. But the city’s police chief, who had arranged for the private viewing, held fast to his decision not to release the recordings.
Scott’s wife Rakeyia Scott and other relatives of the dead man, Keith L. Scott, watched his killing from two angles, recorded Tuesday by police dashboard and body cameras, and “it was incredibly difficult,” a family lawyer, Justin Bamberg, said in a statement.
Family members of Keith Lamont Scott gather outside the Mecklenberg courthouse. Photo: The Independent.
When told by police to exit his vehicle, Mr. Scott did so in a very calm, nonaggressive manner,” Mr. Bamberg said. “While police did give him several commands, he did not aggressively approach them or raise his hands at members of law enforcement at any time.” When an officer opened fire, he added, “Mr. Scott’s hands were by his side, and he was slowly walking backwards.”
On Thursday night, hundreds of people gathered at an intersection in central Charlotte, holding signs and chanting, “We want the tapes!” in a peaceful demonstration. New York Times]
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A spokesman for the Charlotte Fraternal Order of Police told CNN on Thursday he had seen video from the scene showing Scott holding a gun.
“It is important that we have a full and transparent investigation of the original incident,” Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts told a press conference.
The pleas appeared to go largely unheeded. Overnight, protesters smashed windows and glass doors at a downtown Hyatt hotel and punched two employees, the hotel’s manager told Reuters. The slogan “Black Lives Matter” was spray-painted on windows.
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Looters were seen smashing windows and grabbing items from a convenience store as well as a shop that sells athletic wear for the National Basketball Association’s Charlotte Hornets. Protesters also set fire to trash cans.
“We had a lot of looting at a lot of businesses,” Putney said, adding that state police and National Guard troops would help to secure the area on Thursday.
The people arrested faced such charges as assault, breaking and entering and failure to disperse, he said.
It was the second night of unrest in North Carolina’s largest city, one of the biggest U.S. financial centers. Sixteen police officers and several protesters had been injured on Tuesday night and in the early hours of Wednesday.
Related Coverage
- Charlotte police chief says no curfew after violent protests
- Charlotte shooting video to be released with ‘compelling reason’
- Nine people hurt, 44 arrested in Charlotte protests overnight: police
- FACT BOX Slain Charlotte man described as courteous father of seven
Bank of America headquarters, Charlotte, N.C.
Bank of America Corp, which is headquartered in Charlotte, and Wells Fargo & Co, which has a large office there, told employees not to report to work at uptown offices.
The American Civil Liberties Union has called on the police in Charlotte to release camera footage of the incident. Authorities have said the officer who shot Scott, Brentley Vinson, was in plainclothes and not wearing a body camera. But according to officials, video was recorded by other officers and by cameras mounted on patrol cars.
Todd Walther, the Charlotte Fraternal Order of Police official, said the plainclothes officers were wearing vests marked “police” and that he saw them do nothing wrong. Releasing the video would satisfy some people, but not everyone, he added, and people will have to wait for the investigation to conclude.
“The clear facts will come out and the truth will come out. It’s unfortunate to say that we have to be patient, but that’s the way it’s going to have to be,” Walter said.Mayor Roberts said she planned to view the footage on Thursday, but did not indicate if or when it would be made public.
Rage in Charlotte.
The killing of Scott came just days after a fatal shooting of an unarmed black man in Tulsa, Oklahoma that was recorded on video. Protesters have held peaceful rallies demanding the arrest of the female officer involved [who has since turned herself in to face manslaughter charges.]
William Barber, president of North Carolina’s chapter of the NAACP, called for the “full release of all facts available,” and said NAACP officials planned to meet with city officials and members of Scott’s family on Thursday.
(Additional reporting by Colleen Jenkins in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas, Dan Freed in New York and Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Writing by Daniel Wallis and Scott Malone; Editing by Jeremy Gaunt and Jeffrey Benkoe)
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