On the afternoon of September 20 2016, in the city of Charlotte in North Carolina, United States, Keith Lamont Scott, a 43-year-old African-American man was fatally shot by a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department police officer, Brentley Vinson.
According to the account of the story, Police officers arrived at an apartment complex to search for an unrelated man with an outstanding warrant. When the police arrived, they saw Scott exiting his car.
After shooting dead Scott, the police later claimed when Scott exited his car, he was carrying a handgun, and that he refused to follow orders to surrender the gun. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Chief, Kerr Putney said in a statement on the shooting: “The officers gave loud, clear verbal commands which were also heard by many of the witnesses. They were instructing the subject, once he got out of the vehicle, to drop the weapon … Mr. Scott exited his vehicle armed with a handgun as the officers continued to yell at him to drop it.”
However, Scott’s family disputed this account by the police. A family member said on Facebook that their slain beloved kin was simply sitting in his car, reading a book while waiting to pick up his son from school.
When this revelation was made on social media, it infuriated residents, who then marched in their numbers across the city, demanding justice and an end to police brutalities against innocent citizens across the United States.
The police have said footage of the incident is available, promising to release it to the public. But the police have failed to release the footage. This has made residents to suspect that the police are lying over the claims that Mr Scott was armed.
Both the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People have issued statements, pleading with the police to release the footage of the incident in order to diffuse the tension.
Executive Director of the ACLU in North Carolina, Karen Anderson wrote in the statement: “In the interest of transparency and accountability, and particularly in light of conflicting accounts about the shooting, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department should quickly release any and all footage it has of the events leading up to the shooting, as well as the shooting itself. The department should also explain why the officer who shot Mr. Scott was not wearing a body camera.”
As the police refused all these pleas to release the footage of the incident, residents showed them what they can do. Protesters marched through the city center, bringing business to a halt. City officials deployed riot police, but protesters overwhelmed the police.
At a point, the police came face-to-face with protesters, with a shot reportedly being fired. Initially, it was said the police has shot a peaceful protester, but the city later tweeted that the person who fired the shot was a civilian.
ALERT: Fatal shot uptown was civilian on civilian. @CMPD did not fire shot.
— City of Charlotte (@CLTgov) September 22, 2016
But protesters still disputed city officials’ account of the fired shot. Some of the protesters said the police shot an unidentified man. This further exacerbated the already volatile situation. It sparked more outrage against the police.
Minister Steve Knight of the city’s Missiongathering Christian Church who was taking part in the peaceful protest told reporters: “It was an ambush. The victim was shot while he stood between two ministers, and we believe he was shot by police”.
Local media confirmed that police in riot gear marched arm in arm through the city’s downtown intersections, shooting tear gas at people who charged them, as well as firing flash grenades at protesters.
Journalists and motorists were reportedly caught-up in the standoff between the police and protesters. A CNN reporter Ed Lavandera was reportedly tackled and knocked to the ground.
In fact, many of the mainstream media including The New York Time and CNN were spreading misinformation that the peaceful protesters were looting stores in the city.
Even students at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte staged a “die in” protest in the Student Union rotunda. The university posted this image below on social media, showing students on the floor like they are dead.
By late Wednesday September 21, North Carolina Governor, Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency in the city due to events unfolding between protesters and the police. He deployed the so-called National Guard across the city.
“Any violence directed toward our citizens or police officers or destruction of property should not be tolerated. I support and commend the law enforcement officials for their bravery and courage during this difficult situation”, Mr McCrory said in a statement.
Police brutalities against innocent citizens across the United States are just unspeakable now. Before the killing of Scott, On September 16, a Tulsa police officer named Betty Shelby shot and killed a 40-year-old Terence Crutcher who was unarmed. Footage of the incident released by the police showed Mr Crutcher walking away from Shelby with his arms in the air before he was brutally shot and killed. Even the police chief of Tulsa has said it is very difficult for him to watch the footage, describing it as despicable.
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PUT HER IN JAIL. HE WAS UNARMED, THAT WAS MURDER, ACT NOW AND RETRAIN THE POLICE, NO MORE RACIZM, NO MORE KKK, NO MORE RACIAL PROFILING, AMERICA IS DISGUSTING TOWARDS ITS OWN PEOPLE, NEVER MIND THE REST OF THE WORLD…. WE ARE ALL SICK OF THE AMERICANS RAIN ON TERROR…