Man killed by police threatened wife, son with gun, filings show
Woman had filed restraining order
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The black man killed by Charlotte police had a restraining order filed against him a year ago when he threatened to kill his wife and her son with a gun, according to court documents obtained Tuesday.
Keith Scott’s wife filed the order on Oct. 5, saying that law enforcement officers who encounter him should be aware that he “carries a 9mm black” gun. Police have said Scott had a handgun when they approached him at an apartment complex last week. Officers told Scott repeatedly to drop the weapon and he was shot to death when he didn’t follow their orders, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police chief has said.
Scott’s family has said that he was not armed. Videos released by police and the family are inconclusive, and state authorities are investigating. Over the past week, sometimes violent protests have erupted, and the police headquarters building had to be evacuated Tuesday as a bomb squad checked out a suspicious package.
In the restraining order last fall, Rakeyia Scott sought to keep her husband away because “he hit my 8 year old in the head a total of three times with his fist,” she said in the restraining order document.
“He kicked me and threaten to kill us last night with his gun,” she said in the order filed in Gaston County, where the couple then lived. “He said he is a ‘killer’ and we should know that.”
Rakeyia Scott checked boxes on the form informing law officers who would serve the restraining order that her husband had neither a permit issued by a county sheriff to buy a handgun nor a state permit to carry a concealed handgun, which requires a criminal background check. She said he worked as a mall security guard.
When deputies went to serve the restraining order two days after it was filed, Scott had already moved to South Carolina, where he has family. About a week after that, Rakeyia Scott filed a separate court notice voluntarily dismissing the order, saying: “He is no longer a threat to me and my family.”