The moment North Carolina police shot a black man was captured on video by his wife, who can be heard pleading with officers: “Don’t shoot him!”
In the footage, Rakeyia Scott tells husband Keith Scott to get out of his car as Charlotte police surround him.
The clip does not show the actual shooting, or make clear if Scott was carrying a gun, as police say. Officers can be heard urging him to “drop the gun” but his wife is heard telling them he is unarmed, BBC reported.
On Friday evening, a few hundred protestors took to the streets, but the demonstrations were smaller than on the previous three nights.
They chanted “No justice, no peace” and “Release the video”—a call for the police to release their dash-cam and body-cam images of the incident.
The state governor has declared a state of emergency in the city and a midnight curfew has been imposed for a second night running, after rioters looted businesses and threw objects at police on Tuesday and Wednesday nights.
Unnamed police sources told local media and CNN a gun found at the scene was loaded and had Scott’s fingerprints and DNA on it. But the police have said nothing officially.
Charlotte city leaders have been under mounting pressure to release their footage of this week’s shooting.
In the clip, an officer is heard shouting: “Hands up!” Scott’s wife cries: “Don’t shoot him. Don’t shoot him. He has no weapon. He has no weapon. Don’t shoot him.”
An officer says: “Don’t shoot. Drop the gun. Drop the [expletive] gun.” Scott says: “He doesn’t have a gun. He has a TBI [Traumatic Brain Injury]. He just took his medicine.” Family lawyers have previously said Scott suffered head trauma in a car accident last year.
Seconds later, shots ring out in the clip and Scott rushes forward shouting: “Did you shoot him? He better not be [expletive] dead!”
Scott—a 43-year-old father-of-seven—was fatally shot in an apartment complex car park on Tuesday by police who were searching for another person wanted for arrest. There are conflicting accounts of his death—police say he was armed and that a pistol was recovered at the scene; his family says he was holding a book.
At a press conference on Friday, officials defended their refusal to release body-cam and dash-cam video of the shooting.
Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts told reporters, “I do believe the video should be released; the question is on the timing.” She said the video was “inconclusive” as to whether Scott was holding a gun.
City Police Chief Kerr Putney said the video alone does not provide sufficient evidence of probable cause for the shooting. Releasing it without “context” could only inflame the situation, he added.
