CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Videos released Saturday do not show Keith Lamont Scott raising a weapon toward officers nor a gun in his hand.
The videos, from a police dashboard camera and a body camera, captures the confrontation Tuesday in which an officer repeatedly orders Scott to drop his gun.
Scott drew the attention of officers who were trying to serve an arrest warrant on an unrelated suspect at the Village at College Downs apartment complex in University City because he had marijuana in his vehicle, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney said Saturday.
Officers were going to continue on their original mission until an officer spotted a weapon in the vehicle, Putney said.
“It was not lawful for him to possess a firearm,” Putney said. “There was a crime he committed and the gun exacerbated the situation.”
Officer Brentley Vinson, who fired four shots at Scott, was not wearing a body cam so his visual perspective was not part of the footage. Putney said that body cameras are being introduced across the department and not all tactical officers have them yet.
Putney said the videos support the larger fabric of evidence in the case that includes accounts from officers at the scene, forensics and interviews with witnesses.
He said he has found nothing to indicate that Vinson acted inappropriately given the totality of the circumstances, and he does not think his officers broke the law that day.
They were, he said, reacting to what appeared to be an imminent theat.
“At every encounter, people can make a decision to follow loud, clear verbal commands,” he said.
Widespread calls were heard for release of police video footage from civic and political quarters – and even street protesters who chanted “Release the Tapes!” repeatedly outside police headquarters.
On Friday, attorneys for Scott’s family released a cellphone video taken by Rakeyia Scott during her husband’s shooting.
In it, she can be heard pleading with officers not to shoot as they barked commands at Scott to drop his gun.
Putney said the appearance of that video had no effect on his decision to release the police videos.
He said he decided to release them in the interest of transparency and because the State Bureau of Investigation, which is leading the inquiry in the case, had completed key interviews with witnesses and assured him the release would not harm the integrity of their investination.
“Doing so before this would have had a negative impact on the investigation,” he said.
After Scott’s death, Charlotte was roiled by several nights of protests. After street violence on Tuesday and Wednesday night, dozens of arrests and the death of one man Gov. Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency.
This story will be updated.
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