Protests break out across North Carolina injuring 12 police officers after cops shot dead a ‘disabled’ black father-of-seven: Police claim he had a gun but family insist he was unarmed and reading a book
September 21, 2016 in News by RBN
via: Daily Caller
Twelve police officers have been injured during violent protests and looting in North Carolina that broke out after an officer fatally shot a black man who they claimed was carrying a gun – but his family have insisted he was a disabled father-of-seven who was only reading a book.
Keith Lamont Scott, 43, was shot by a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer at The Village at College Downs in Charlotte at about 4pm on Tuesday.
The police department issued a statement saying the officers fired their weapons after considering Scott a threat.
But Scott’s brother and sister said he didn’t have a gun and was reading a book in his car while waiting for his son to be dropped off from school, WSOC reported.
On Tuesday night, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department tweeted that demonstrators were destroying marked police vehicles. Five people were believed to have been arrested.
They said approximately 12 officers had been injured, including one who was hit in the face with a rock.
Video shows one protester jumping on top of a police car and officers firing tear gas to break up the crowd. Several hundred people gathered with some setting fires to block a major road, while others set trucks ablaze.
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Keith Lamont Scott (pictured left and right, with his wife) was shot by Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers at The Village at College Downs at about 4pm on Tuesday
Some protesters were heard yelling ‘Black Lives Matter,’ and ‘Hands up, don’t shoot!’ at police officers in riot gear
On Twitter, the CMPD said approximately 12 officers were injured, including one officer who was hit in face with a rock
Police in riot gear deployed tear gas to disperse the crowds of protesters who gathered in Charlotte on Tuesday night
Some stole boxes from trucks before police used flash grenades in an attempt to disperse the angry crowd, an ABC affiliate in Charlotte reported.
A group of protesters then tried to break into a Walmart store before police arrived and began guarding its front entryway.
Some protesters were heard yelling ‘Black Lives Matter,’ and ‘Hands up, don’t shoot!’ . They held up a sign saying ‘Stop Killing Us’ and ‘it was a book’, making reference to the object Scott was reportedly holding when he was shot dead.
The protests came just hours after another demonstration in Tulsa, Oklahoma, over the shooting there of an unarmed black man by police.
Charlotte police went to the complex around 4pm looking for a suspect with an outstanding warrant when they saw Scott – not the suspect they were looking for – inside a car, department spokesman Keith Trietley said in a statement.
