Charlotte protest: Police under fire for refusing to release video showing fatal shooting of black man

Officials in Charlotte are under mounting pressure to release video footage that shows the disputed and contentious shooting of a black man - a incident that has triggered three days of angry protests.

Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts on Friday said she supported releasing footage from two police cameras that she herself has watched, which shows the fatal shooting of Keith Lamont Scott.

Yet in a move that has been widely condemned, she and the city’s police chief, Kerr Putney, said they believed the time as not yet right as the video’s release could inflame passions rather than defuse them.

“My job is to make sure I do not damage the trust we are trying to build here,” said Mr Putney.

Ms Roberts, whose tone and language appeared to suggest she was more inclined to release the footage, said: “I lean towards transparency in everything our city does. However, I know there is a delicate balance. I have heard from all sides this…I do think the video should be released. The only question is timing.”

Mr Scott, 43, was shot and killed on Tuesday as he was sitting in his car, close to his home ten miles east of Charlotte.

He was shot up to four times by a black plainclothes officer, who was part of a police team who had an arrest warrant for someone else.

Police have claimed that officers saw Mr Scott get out of his car with a gun and that he refused their repeated shouted demands that he drop his weapon. Mr Scott’s family has disputed that he owned a weapon and said he was sitting in his car reading a book as he waited for his daughter to get off the school bus.

The family of Mr Scott has seen the video - one taken from the dash-camera of a police vehicle and that other from a body camera worn by one of the uniformed officers. In a statement released on Thursday after seeing the footage, they said what they had seen did not support the police’s claim that he represented a threat.

In a statement, family lawyer Justin Bamberg said though the videos were difficult to watch, their release would serve transparency and the greater public good. Protesters on the streets of Charlotte have repeatedly chanted for the release of the footage.

In the video, Mr Scott can be seen exiting his vehicle in a calm manner, and he did not aggressively approach police, his family said.

“It is impossible to discern from the videos what, if anything, Mr Scott is holding in his hands,” Mr Bamberg said. “When he was shot and killed, Mr Scott’s hands were by his side and he was slowly walking backwards.”

The family said they will continue their own investigation into Mr Scott’s death. “For those who wish to protest, we urge you to do so peacefully,” the family said in a statement.

Mr Putney said the video footage by itself did not prove the “probable cause” that would merit his officer shooting Mr Scott. He said the incident was now the subject of an inquiry by state investigators who would collect other evidence.

Ms Roberts said she feared that releasing the footage by itself could cloud people’s judgement as to what had happened.

Meanwhile, the state’s top officer, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, said in a statement: “We must continue in the pursuit of the truth while also continuing the important work of bringing our communities and law enforcement together to build trust and safety for all.

“One step toward meeting both goals is for the videos in this case to be released to the public. Transparency between the community and our law enforcement breaks down barriers and brings progress.”

The decision not to release the footage is in sharp contrast to that taken by the authorities in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which made public footage showing the shooting of Terence Crutcher, who was unarmed at the time he was killed by an officer earlier this week. Protests in Oklahoma have been peaceful.

“The more information that is released, the less opportunity for rumours to spread,” Eric Schneider, an urban and crime historian at the University of Pennsylvania, told Reuters.