Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Shooting video released
Fatal gunfire not shown by Charlotte officers’ cameras
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte police released video footage Saturday that shows officers surrounding a black man with his hands at his sides before shots are fired and he buckles to the ground.
Keith Lamont Scott, 43, can be seen in police dashboard camera video backing away from his SUV with his hands down, and it is unclear if there is anything in the man’s hands. Four shots are heard, and he falls to the ground.
Scott was shot to death by a black officer on Tuesday.
The footage was released after several days of demonstrations that have coalesced around demands that the public see the videos.
The videos, from a dashboard camera and a body camera, also show the sequence of events leading up to the shooting.
The dashboard camera footage starts with two officers pointing their guns at Scott, who is inside the SUV with the doors closed and windows rolled up. Scott gets out and starts walking backward before shots are fired.
From a different angle, police body camera footage shows an officer approach with his gun drawn and another officer already pointing his gun at Scott. When Scott comes into view, he has his hands at his sides and is standing outside his SUV. The body camera footage doesn’t show the moment the shots are fired, and the next time Scott comes into view, he is already on the ground.
Police also released photos of what they said showed a handgun and marijuana that were in Scott’s possession.
Later Saturday, police released a narrative of what they said happened in the moments leading up to Scott’s fatal shooting.
The department said in their statement that two plainclothes officers were preparing to arrest someone else when they saw Scott sitting in an SUV, rolling a marijuana blunt.
Officers said they weren’t concerned about the drugs until they noticed that Scott had a gun with him, the statement says. But after an officer “observed Mr. Scott hold a gun up,” police put on marked vests to identify themselves as officers, the statement says.
The officers said they identified themselves as police and gave Scott orders to drop the gun, which he refused, the statement says. A uniformed officer tried to use a baton to break out a window on Scott’s SUV, the statement says.
Police said the man got out of the SUV, with the gun, and backed away while ignoring demands to drop the gun, the statement says.
Perceiving Scott’s actions as an “imminent physical threat,” officer Brentley Vinson fired his weapon at Scott, according to the statement.
Police said detectives interviewed witnesses, who confirmed that Scott hadn’t complied with officers’ demands, the statement says.
The report also says forensic examination shows Scott’s DNA and fingerprints on the loaded gun retrieved from the scene and that Scott was wearing an ankle holster.
Before releasing the video footage, Police Chief Kerr Putney said at a news conference that he received assurances from the State Bureau of Investigation that letting the public see the video would not affect an independent probe of the shooting.
Asked whether he expected the footage to calm protesters, Putney responded: “The footage itself will not create in anyone’s mind absolute certainty as to what this case represents and what the outcome should be. The footage only supports all of the other information,” such as physical evidence and statements from witnesses and officers, he said.
At his news conference, Putney said his officers didn’t break the law but noted that the State Bureau of Investigation was continuing its investigation.
“Officers are absolutely not being charged by me at this point, but again, there’s another investigation ongoing,” he said.
Putney said earlier that Scott was “absolutely in possession of a handgun.”
Many of the hundreds of protesters massed outside at the Charlotte Police Department building Saturday afternoon chanted the name “Keith Scott.” They also chanted, “No tapes, no peace” and raised signs including one reading, “Stop killing the black people.”
The city has been on edge since Scott’s slaying. The demonstrations reached a violent crescendo on Wednesday before the National Guard was called in a day later to maintain order.
Charlotte is the latest U.S. city to be shaken by protests and recriminations over the death of a black man at the hands of police, a list that includes Baltimore, Milwaukee, Chicago, New York and Ferguson, Mo.