Charlotte chief: Officers warned man to drop gun
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Charlotte police worked the scene of a shooting on Tuesday, in Charlotte, N.C. A black police officer shot a black man at an apartment complex Tuesday, authorities said, prompting angry street protests late into the night.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. » Police officers gave a black man multiple clear warnings to drop a handgun before one of the officers opened fire and killed him, Charlotte’s police chief said today, hours after protesters and police clashed in unrest that saw semi-trucks looted and set on fire.
At least 16 officers were injured, including one who was hit in the face with a rock. Authorities had to use tear gas to disperse the protests, which happened after another demonstration in Tulsa, Oklahoma, over the shooting there of an unarmed black man by police.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney said during a news conference that officers were searching for a suspect Tuesday when they saw 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott exit a vehicle with a handgun. Officers told Scott, who was not the suspect they were looking for, to drop the gun. He got out of the vehicle a second time still carrying it, the chief said, and he was shot because he posed a threat.
“It’s time to change the narrative, because I can tell you from the facts that the story’s a little bit different as to how it’s been portrayed so far, especially through social media,” he said.
His comments were an apparent reference to a profanity-laced, hourlong video that a woman claiming to be Scott’s daughter posted to Facebook soon after the shooting, saying that her father had an unspecified disability and was unarmed. In it, she appears to be at the shooting scene, which is surrounded by yellow police tape, as she yells at officers.
The woman did not respond to Facebook messages, and her claims could not immediately be verified by The Associated Press. It also was not clear if she witnessed the shooting.
The family plans a news conference today in the neighborhood where the shooting occurred.
The black officer who shot Scott, Brently Vinson, has been placed on administrative leave as is standard procedure in such cases. Vinson has been with the department for two years.
B.J. Murphy, an outspoken leader of the Nation of Islam, called for an economic boycott of the city. He said if “black lives don’t matter, black money shouldn’t matter.”
Police said the protests broke out around 7 p.m. Tuesday, about three hours after the shooting at an apartment complex on the city’s northeast side.
TV footage showed dozens of protesters on Interstate 85 apparently looting semi-trucks and setting their contents on fire on the highway, shutting the highway down.
The police chief said 16 officers suffered mostly minor injuries and police cars were damaged after people began throwing rocks.
By 5 a.m. today, the streets were quiet and I-85 was moving again. Broken glass and rocks littered the ground where a police car had been vandalized. Less than 5 miles away, wooden pallets barricaded the entrance of a Wal-Mart that had apparently been looted.
Detectives recovered a gun at the scene and were interviewing witnesses.
“The officers gave loud, clear verbal commands, which were also heard by many of the witnesses,” the police chief said.
Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts appealed for calm.
In Tulsa, hundreds of people rallied outside police headquarters calling for the firing of police officer Betty Shelby, who shot 40-year-old Terence Crutcher on Friday during a confrontation in the middle of a road that was captured on police dashcam and helicopter video.
Shelby’s attorney has said Crutcher was not following the officers’ commands and that Shelby was concerned because he kept reaching for his pocket as if he were carrying a weapon. An attorney representing Crutcher’s family says Crutcher committed no crime and gave officers no reason to shoot him.
Local and federal investigations into that shooting are ongoing.
Associated Press writers Tom Foreman Jr. and Steve Reed contributed to this report.
36 responses to “Charlotte chief: Officers warned man to drop gun”
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Thank you Barrack Obama and the Liberal Media. Rule and Report News with bias views and this is what you get. Just waiting for Obama to allude to, if I had a son he’d be Keith!
there is a problem with Respect. When John Law tells you something, you comply. Seeing and knowing what could happen not heeding the words of Law enforcement figures you figure people would learn to listen and obey. Blame the white cops you bigots! time and time again. Thank you Barrack Obama, Liberal Media and Black Lives Matter!
Agree. Victim wasn’t brought properly.
Yup, very simple. Just listen to da POPO when they tell you STOP!
All criminals should be shot dead when they resist law officers and the officer rewarded.
Criminal population control?
You are making the same mistake many professional rookie officers make. They actually think everyone has perfect hearing, no mental issues, not under medication speaks fluent English. Hello! This is the real world not the one in your mind.
As we have seen on the news repeatedly, deaf people with mild mental issues do have driver’s license. When an officer does nothing but yell commands at the top of his voice and this person does not respond (no weapon on them) this is not your permission to shoot them dead.
In the video, the North Carolina trooper asked this black man for his ID. Man was reaching into his car to get it and for no reason at all, the trooper opens fire. Luckily, he was a rookie, a bad shot, person survived. After the investigation, the trooper was fired, prosecuted, going to prison.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/25/justice/south-carolina-trooper-shooting/
agree with localguy. Real life is complex and ambiguous. That said, let us await the results of a full investigation. By the way, I read an interesting article recently that black cops are more likely to kill black suspects than white police when the ratio of numbers studied are used.
The guy shot in NC had a weapon on him he was aked to drop it and never did and ended up being shot by a fellow black person. People with mental problem SHOULD NOT be allowed to own guns. Deaf or not, I am sure deaf people are taught what to do when stopped by a cop, they don’t even have to hear what the cop was yelling. When a cop started pointing his weapon at him the thing he should have done is to drop the gun and raise his hands over his head. Well he ended up getting shot and killed, good riddance!!
People with mental issues are a danger to themselves and others and should not be allowed alone in public.
There are only a few national cases where someone was shot innocently and the cop was wrong. The bulk of them had it coming and deserve it for not following simple instructions or acting in a manor where a cop feels in danger. For the very very few mentally ill, if they are unable to follow basic directions from an officer they are likely too incompetent and dangerous enough to be allowed to drive a vehicle in public in the first place.
That’s why people like Trump. He’ll having every american armed so that every time they get stopped the percentages of getting shot by the police increases especially if you’re black. Another remedy is to have more black cops so if they shoot blacks they can’t protest black lives matter.
Black lives matter should include black-on-black killings which occur a lot more often than police-on-black killings, which gets all the publicity. Check out black on black killings in Chicago, for example.
I couldn’t agree more, but I’ve been muzzled by the SA for mentioning statistical facts about this subject. Expect to hear from them.
Vicious political correctness is gagging us, the truth about racial differences in behavior must remain suppressed.
He doesnt understand the commands. He is deaf, blind or just plain dumb.
If he is deaf or blind, he shouldn’t be driving the car he exited from TWICE. If he is dumb…well, that just speaks for itself.
Really?| Clearly you have no idea how the real world works. Deaf people can qualify for a driver’s license, nothing wrong with this.
Problem is LEOs are not properly trained to handle real world situations. They actually think everyone has perfect hearing, no mental issues, not under medication, speaks fluent English. Hello!
In the video, the North Carolina trooper asked this black man for his ID. Man was reaching into his car to get it and for no reason at all, the trooper opens fire. Luckily, he was a rookie, a bad shot, person survived. After the investigation, the trooper was fired, prosecuted, going to prison.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/25/justice/south-carolina-trooper-shooting/
Well if he had mental issues how does he own a gun?
Localguy, I think you may be confusing readers by your comments that are unrelated to the story, which is about a black cop shooting and killing a black man armed with a hand gun who refused multiple commands to drop it.
People with mental issues should not be in possession of a gun as it’s against the law! The Brady Law as well as the recent law passed a few years back prohibit the mentally ill gun ownership or access to one. If he was truly mentally ill and had a gun then he was already a criminal.
Black lives matter, too bad it was a black cop killing a black man. Got to love social media which caused all those riots. I wonder what the daughter has to say in their family news conference today?
How can you vote for Democrats or listen to the Liberal Media sources who have blatantly redacted facts in their reports/comments? Hillary has shown the General Public how lies are talked out of and the LIberal Media backs her up. Both are run with Deception, Lies, etc. How you people don’t realize the facts I don’t understand. You hate TheDonald so much willing to live with LIARS for political reasons just don’t make sense at all.
Heck yeah! Orange People get a raw deal in America.
Blacks taking advantage of the killing of one of their own…#FREESTUFF
BLM is a hate group and should be treated just like the KKK. Don’t people see an understand this politically correct nonsense. This is peddled by the Left by promoting, encouraging this type of radical behavior. Not to worry though, they will find the wrong store to loot or the wrong tractor trailer to rob. It will not be pretty, but I really do NOT want to hear Diddly Squat when this happens. They deserve it.
Looted local Wal Mart? What happens if Wal Mart closes in that neighborhood because of this incident? Answer – same thing that happened after the Watts riots. No chain stores with discounted prices. Only liquor stores or other small shops with heavy security and high prices. Way to go! Got your free stuff now, but you’ll be riding a bus for about an hour to shop at a Wal Mart in a neighborhood that doesn’t think looting is a good idea.
A black police officer shot and killed a black man who refused multiple commands to drop a hand gun. The people who clashed with police and who looted and set fire to trucks were not protesters as described in the story; they were anarchists who used the killing to justify rioting and their criminal behavior.
Rioters should also be shot. That would instill some respect for law enforcement in them.
If an officer tells you to “Stop or I’ll shoot!” or “Drop that gun!” and you brush his command off………well you deserve it. Why does the black community insist on testing cops? What is wrong with them? They think they don’t have to listen to the cops? WTF?!
The black thug who was shot and killed probably did not think the black police officer would do it.
Simple common sense how NOT to get shot by the police! https://youtu.be/uj0mtxXEGE8
GREAT VIDEO, SHOULD BE SHOWED TO THE blm CROWDBEFORE THEY GET LET LOOSE TO ROAM.
The BLM THUG’s believe that it’s just fine if a black man or any color exits a car with a handgun and expects cops to just let him walk away! Wrong answer. Cop tells you to drop your gun just do it and you’ll be fine, but hey, what the hell are you doing with a gun in your hand unless you plan on using it.
LOOKS LIKE MAJORITY OF SA SUSCRIBERS HERE ARE SMARTER THAN the liberal editors.
Agree. But, when they are shot and killed, the family says, “But he is a good person. He never gets into trouble.” Blah, blah, blah…