Unrest flares anew in US city after police shooting
A second night of race-related clashes in Charlotte in the US state of North Carolina has left one protester on life support, with the renewed violence prompting the governor to declare a state of emergency, reports AFP.
Several hundred people taunted riot police late yesterday amid clashes in the city center, a second night of unrest ignited by the fatal police shooting of a black man. Governor Pat McCrory said on Twitter that he was activating the National Guard and Highway Patrol officers to assist local law enforcement.
"We cannot tolerate violence. We cannot tolerate the destruction of property and will not tolerate the attacks towards our police officers that are occurring right now, and I feel very strongly about that," the governor later told CNN. "That is not the American way."
The protests were sparked by the death of Keith Lamont Scott, 43, fatally shot in an apartment complex parking lot on Tuesday after an encounter with officers searching for a suspect wanted for arrest.
A protester was critically wounded and on life support, the city said, after erroneously reporting that the person had died.
Authorities had said the protester was shot by a civilian, adding that police did not open fire.
An AFP reporter at the scene of the protests outside the Omni Charlotte hotel saw a man who was apparently shot falling to the ground, bleeding heavily.
The evening started out with a peaceful vigil for Scott, but the atmosphere changed dramatically once demonstrators walked to the nearby police headquarters, where one protester pulled the American flag to the bottom of its flagpole.
By the time the protesters walked the few blocks to uptown, and encountered riot police standing like statues on Trade Street, the marchers were seething.
"It's too much. It's too much," winced one woman, wiping tears from her eyes as she stood before riot police. "We've got brothers and sisters and children and fathers who think we're not going to live to see the next day. Nobody should have to live like that," she said.
Some demonstrators stood on cars and hurled objects at police, who fired what appeared to be tear gas, sending the protesters scattering. Scott's death is the latest in a string of police-involved killings of black men that have fueled outrage across the US.