Charlotte on edge after police fatally shoot black man

Demonstrators clashed with police officers in riot gear late Tuesday in Charlotte, N.C., after officers shot and killed a black man while trying to serve a warrant on another person at an apartment complex.

The shooting, which occurred just before 4 p.m., and the subsequent protest in the University City neighborhood revived scrutiny of a police department that last drew substantial national attention about three years ago, when a white officer was quickly charged with voluntary manslaughter after he killed an unarmed black man.

The circumstances of Tuesday’s shooting were, at least according to the police, far different, with department officials saying that an officer had opened fire because the black man, Keith L. Scott, 43, who they said was armed with a gun, “posed an imminent deadly threat.”

Police spokesman Keith-Trietley said detectives recovered a firearm at the scene and were interviewing witnesses.

Although their accounts sometimes diverged, members of Scott’s family generally told local news outlets that he had not had a weapon. Instead, they said, he had been clutching a book while waiting to pick up a child after school.

The police said late Tuesday that “agitators” were “destroying marked police units” and that officers were working “to restore order and protect our community.” Early Wednesday, they said that about a dozen officers had been injured; one officer was hit in the face with a rock.

Mayor Jennifer Roberts urged calm in her city of about 827,000 people, 35 percent of whom are black. “The community deserves answers and full investigation will ensue,” Roberts said on her Twitter account. “Will be reaching out to community leaders to work together.”

The shooting in Charlotte was the latest in a long string of deaths of black people at the hands of the police that have stoked outrage around the country. It came just a few days after a white police officer in Tulsa, Okla., fatally shot an unarmed black man who could be seen on video raising his hands above his head.

The encounters, many of them at least partly caught on video, have led to intense debate about race relations and law enforcement.

The Police Department identified the officer who fired his weapon as Brentley Vinson, an employee since July 2014. Vinson is black, according to local reports.