Charlotte Police: No 'Definitive' Video Proof Man Pointed Gun

Family and neighbors have said Keith Scott was unarmed when shot by officer
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 22, 2016 12:24 PM CDT
Charlotte Police: No 'Definitive' Video Proof Man Pointed Gun
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney pauses before answering a question during a news conference after a second night of violence following Tuesday's fatal police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott in Charlotte.   (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

Body camera footage from the scene shows no proof Keith Scott pointed a gun at anybody before being shot and killed by an officer Tuesday in Charlotte, the Charlotte Observer reports. "The video does not give me absolute, definitive visual evidence that could confirm that a person is pointing a gun," police chief Kerr Putney says. "I didn't see that in the videos I saw." The 43-year-old father of seven was shot after officers say he got out of his car with a gun, which he refused to drop. Scott's family and other residents at the apartment complex where he was killed say he was unarmed, according to the AP. Regardless, Putney says video, "when taken in the totality of all the other evidence," supports the police's narrative, ABC News reports.

Putney says they'll be showing the video to Scott's family but not making it public, arguing the case doesn't warrant "full transparency" and that doing so would hurt the investigation. That decision is opposed by the ACLU and others. "We need answers, and we need justice," US Rep. Alma Adams says. "That begins with actions like releasing the video." Meanwhile, Charlotte's mayor says there's no need for a curfew despite protests that have turned violent two nights in a row. A man who was shot and initially reported killed during the protests on Wednesday is still alive. Police were looking for another man at the apartment complex Tuesday when an officer shot Scott, who family says was reading a book while waiting for his son to get out of school. (More Keith Scott stories.)

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