Police to release video of fatal shooting after protests

dimeji akinloye

September 24, 2016 11:58 PM

Police Chief Kerr Putney announced the release of the video at a briefing, following days of demonstrations at which protesters demanded to see the clip.

Charlotte police to release video of fatal shooting after protests

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney announced the release of the video at a briefing, following days of demonstrations at which protesters demanded that authorities allow the public to see clips of the Tuesday shooting.

Putney said evidence showed that Keith Scott, who was killed on Tuesday, was holding a gun when he was shot by a police officer, but that the videos themselves were "insufficient" to prove that.

"There is no definitive visual evidence that he had a gun in his hand, you can see something in the hand, and that he pointed it at an officer. That I did not visually see in the video," Putney said. "But what we do see is compelling evidence that, when you put all the pieces together, supports that."

The news conference came as demonstrators on Saturday mounted a fifth day of protests in Charlotte. They called for the end of emergency measures imposed on the city this week, the removal of National Guard troops and for officers involved in the incident to be prosecuted.

The shooting of Scott, a 43-year-old father of seven, was the latest in a series of deadly police encounters across the country in recent years that has raised questions about the use of force by U.S. law enforcement against African-Americans and other minorities.

Chief Putney said that police officers had arrived at the apartment complex where Scott was in a car in order to serve a warrant on a different person. They saw that Scott was in possession of marijuana, Putney said, publicizing a new element in the case, and then noticed a gun.

"They look in the car and they see the marijuana, they don't act. They see the gun and they think they need to," Putney said.

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Police have continually said that Scott was armed at the time of the encounter, a contention that his family has disputed and which gave rise to the protests and rioting in Charlotte.

A video taken by Scott's wife and released to the public on Friday did not provide an answer on whether Scott had a gun.

dimeji akinloye