CHARLOTTE, N.C.—Violent protesters rampaged through parts of downtown Charlotte as anger continued to build over the deadly police shooting of a black man and the wildly different stories about what happened from authorities and the victim’s family and neighbors.
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency Wednesday night in the state’s largest city and called in the National Guard after Charlotte’s police chief said he needed the help.
A peaceful prayer vigil turned into an angry march and then a night of violence after a protester was shot and critically wounded as people charged police in riot gear trying to protect an upscale hotel in Charlotte’s typically vibrant downtown. Police did not shoot the man, city officials said.
Video obtained and verified by The Associated Press, which was recorded right after the shooting, shows someone lying in a pool of blood as people scream and a voice yells for someone to call for help. People are then told to back up from the scene.
Police fire teargas as protestors converge on downtown following Tuesday’s police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott in Charlotte, N.C., on Sept. 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)The unrest following Tuesday afternoon’s fatal shooting of 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott by a black officer took many by surprise in Charlotte, the banking capital of the South with a population of 830,000 people, about 35 percent of them black. The city managed to pull through a racially charged shooting three years ago without the unrest that erupted in recent years in places such as Baltimore, Milwaukee and Ferguson, Missouri.
In 2013, Charlotte police charged one of their own, Randall Kerrick with voluntary manslaughter within days, after the white officer shot an unarmed black man who had been in a wreck and was looking for help. The jury deadlocked and the charge was dropped last summer. The city saw a few protests but no violence.
On Wednesday, hundreds of protesters who were shouting “black lives matter” and “hands up, don’t shoot” left after police fired flash grenades and tear gas after the shooting. But several groups of a dozen or more protesters stayed behind, attacking people, including reporters, shattering windows to hotels, office buildings and restaurants and setting small fires.
At one point, television news helicopters showed protesters on the loop highway around downtown, trying to stop cars for several minutes before police arrived.
“My heart bleeds for what our great city is going through,” McCrory said on WBTV-TV. He was mayor of Charlotte for 14 years before becoming governor.
Protesters march behind a bicycle officer along Trade Street in Charlotte, N.C., on Sept. 21, 2016. (Jeff Siner/The Charlotte Observer via AP)Authorities said three people and four police officers were injured, but those figures had not been updated early Thursday morning. Videos and pictures on Twitter showed reporters and other people being attacked.
The violence happened amid questions about what happened when Scott was shot and killed in the parking lot of his condominium complex. Police did not release dashboard or body camera footage, but said Scott had a gun and refused several orders to drop his weapon. Scott’s family and neighbors said he was holding a book.
“He got out of his car, he walked back to comply, and all his compliance did was get him murdered,” said Taheshia Williams, whose balcony overlooks the shady parking spot where Scott was Tuesday afternoon. She said he often waited there for his son because a bicycle accident several years ago left him stuttering and susceptible to seizures if he stayed out in the hot sun too long.
Charlotte Police Chief Kerr Putney was angered by the stories on social media, especially a profanity-laced, hourlong video on Facebook, where a woman identifying herself as Scott’s daughter screamed “My daddy is dead!” at officers at the shooting scene and repeating that he was only holding a book.
Putney was adamant that Scott posed a threat, even if he didn’t point his weapon at officers, and said a gun was found next to the dead man. “I can tell you we did not find a book,” the chief said.
Not long after the Facebook video was posted Tuesday night, the first night of destructive protests began near the shooting scene, about 15 miles northeast of downtown Charlotte. Dozens of demonstrators threw rocks at police and reporters, damaged squad cars, closed part of Interstate 85, and looted a stopped truck and set a fire. Authorities used tear gas to break up the protests.
The distrust of police continued after Wednesday’s shooting of the protester. Many demonstrators did not believe city officials’ assertion that officers did not shot the protester.
“We protesting. Why the hell would we target each other?” Dino Davis said. “They say it was the tear gas, and it looked like one the tear gas exploded. But I think it was a rubber bullet because some of those rubber bullets can penetrate.”
Police said the plainsclothes officer who shot Scott, identified as Brently Vinson, has been placed on leave, standard procedure in such cases. Three uniformed officers at the shooting scene had body cameras; Vinson did not, police said.
Calls for police to release the video increased. North Carolina has a law that takes effect Oct. 1 requiring a judge to approve releasing police video, and Putney said he doesn’t release video when a criminal investigation is ongoing.
But that video may be the only thing that calms Charlotte, said John Barnett, who runs a civil rights group called True Healing Under God, or THUG.
“Just telling us this is still under investigation is not good enough for the windows of the Wal-Mart,” he said.
After about four hours, the violence began winding down. Hotel employees and security guards immediately started cleaning up broken glass.
But Charlotte remained on edge. Bank of America told its thousands of employees working in its 60-story skyscraper to stay home Thursday.
