Rakeyia Scott, the wife of Keith Lamont Scott, used her cell phone to record the moments leading up to the shooting of her husband by police in Charlotte, North Carolina. The video does not show the shooting itself but does show moments leading up to it and then shows Scott on the ground after multiple shots are fired.
We can’t see what Scott has in his hands at the moment of the shooting because his wife is on the other side of a police SUV. We do hear the police yelling, repeatedly, for Scott to drop a gun. Based on a transcript of the video made by the NY Times, police order Scott to “drop the gun” 11 separate times over about 45 seconds before shots are fired. However the gun itself is never visible.
The NY Times reports it was given the video by attorneys representing the Scott family:
Justin Bamberg, who, along with Eduardo Curry, is representing the family, said in an interview Friday that the video did not prove that the shooting was either justified or unjustified. Rather, he said, it offered “another vantage point” of the incident. He said he hoped the Police Department would release is own videos of the shooting, as protesters have been demanding since it took place Tuesday afternoon.
Earlier Ed noted that Charlotte Police Chief Putney seemed to be suggesting that he had no plans to release the police videos of the incident. However, this morning the Mayor of Charlotte seemed to be suggesting the release would happen, only the timing was in doubt. From the Associated Press:
Mayor Jennifer Roberts said during a news conference Friday that “I do believe the video should be released. The question is on the timing.” Police Chief Kerr Putney echoed her remarks, saying the video’s release is “a matter of when, it’s a matter of sequence.”
Apparently, Chief Putney is not planning to release the video today but perhaps the release of the family video will change his mind. The Chief has already said he can clearly see a gun in Scott’s hand in the police videos. Why not release them so everyone else can see that too?
Update: CNN reports some details about the gun police say Scott was holding:
The gun police say they recovered from the scene of Scott’s shooting was loaded, a source close to the investigation told CNN. The source said investigators recovered from the weapon fingerprints, blood and DNA that matched with Scott. The source said the blood most likely got on the gun after the shooting.
This won’t convince anyone who believes the police may have planted the gun. That seems to be where this is going with the family’s attorney telling CNN, “We want the public to take a look at this tape and see what was in the video before he was shot, and what was there afterward, and ask how it got there.”
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