A new video showing the killing of Keith Lamont Scott, filmed by his wife, shows police warning Scott to “drop the gun” as his wife screams that he did not have a weapon.
Scott, 43, was killed by police in Charlotte, North Carolina, after he was mistaken for a suspect in another incident. Police have refused to release police body camera footage of the incident. His death has sparked days of unrest in the city, during which one man was shot and later died.
The video does not show the moment of Scott’s death, or whether he had a weapon. The Scott family insists he was unarmed.
In the video, released by the Scott family attorneys to the New York Times and NBC News, Rakeyia Scott can be heard yelling to a group of police, “Don’t shoot him, don’t shoot him, he has no weapon,” while officers yell to “drop the gun”.
Soon after, four shots are fired and police are seen gathered around Scott’s body, lying on the ground.
“He better not be fucking dead,” Rakeyia Scott shouts, standing a short distance away. “He better live.”
According to NBC, police have previously said that a still photo taken from a video shows a pistol near Scott’s feet.
Neither that photo nor the family’s video are perfectly clear, but they seem to contradict each other. In the family’s video, which includes footage from before, during, and after the shooting, there is no gun visible.
The video’s release follows a police announcement on Friday that a suspect was arrested in the deadly shooting of Justin Carr, a 26-year-old protester shot Wednesday night during violent demonstrations.
Police chief Kerr Putney said during a news conference that a video led police to arrest the suspect on Friday morning, but did not give further details.
The arrest was the latest development in a confused and deadly series of encounters between police and the public that has highlighted the critical role of video in investigations. The protests started on Tuesday after Scott’s death in the parking lot of his apartment complex on the east side of the city.
Protesters have rallied to a cry of “release the tapes”, demanding that police release footage from that incident, and police have so far refused. They did show footage of the confrontation to the family, whose lawyer, Justin Bamberg, said has left the family with “more questions than answers”.
Information has proven mercurial throughout the protests. For instance, on Wednesday night after Carr’s shooting, Putney said that he had died. Later city officials reversed that announcement and said that Carr was still alive. Then on Thursday the city confirmed that he had indeed died from his injuries.
The city also said Carr was injured during a “civilian on civilian” shooting. But protesters were not inclined to take authorities at their word. “There was no fight,” said Eddie Thomas, an attorney and Charlotte public defender. He was at the intersection in question to observe interactions between police and the public, he said. “There was no issue between protesters. It just didn’t happen.”
Thomas’s account matched with what other witnesses claimed to see. “I saw the police shoot that man almost point blank with my own eyes,” Jimmy James Tyson wrote on Facebook afterward. “Police shot him close range in the side of the head with a rubber bullet.”
The protests have been far-ranging and unpredictable. They began on Tuesday night near Scott’s home, and by Wednesday had moved into the city center, the scene of violent confrontations between protesters and police. On Thursday night protesters moved to the John Belk Freeway, where they stopped cars until police fired tear gas canisters and pepper balls. Even so, it was more peaceful than Wednesday night.
Charlotte’s mayor, Jennifer Roberts, has declared a curfew to run daily from midnight to 6am. Police did not enforce the curfew Thursday night, allowing protesters to peacefully disperse. Local authorities have also called in state troopers and the National Guard for help controlling the crowds.
(TheGuardian US)
