Wife releases dramatic cell phone video of Charlotte shooting

CHARLOTTE — The family of Keith Lamont Scott, the black man shot dead by Charlotte police, released video on Friday that his wife recorded on her cellphone at the time of the killing that includes sounds of gunfire and her hysterical pleas for police not to shoot him.

The two-minute and 12-second video, broadcast first by MSNBC, was obtained by NBC reporter Gabe Gutierrez who said the Scott family was planning to distribute it widely.

Scott, 43, was shot Tuesday afternoon by a black plainclothes police officer near an apartment complex. The family decided to release the cell phone video one day after viewing other footage from Charlotte police that officials have not released publicly.

The cellphone video does not show Scott until after he is hit and on the ground. It also does not show whether he was holding a weapon. The footage does include the sound of gunfire and the shouts of police officers for Scott to drop his gun.

In the video, which begins before shots are fired, Rakeyia Scott — who had gone inside to recharge her cell phone while Keith sat in the car awaiting his son's school bus — approaches the area where several vehicles, including a police car, are clustered.

"Don't shoot him, he has no weapons!" she shouts at the officers.

Her pleas alternate with the sound of voices, apparently the officers, repeatedly shouting, "Drop the gun! Drop the gun!"

Rakeyia calls out to them, saying he does not have a gun. ""He doesn't have a gun, he has TBI (traumatic brain injury). He is not going to do anything to you guys, he just took his medicine."

She also shouts to Scott, who is blocked in the video by cars, saying, "Come on out the car, Keith. Don't do it."

Within seconds, four shots ring out in quick succession.

"Did you shoot him? Did you shoot him? He better not be (expletive) dead!" she shouts. Rakeyia continues to record, yelling at the officers that she is not going to go near them. "I'm going to record you. He better be alive." She also asks the officers if they have called for an ambulance.

The Scott killing sparked three nights of violence, including violent encounters between protesters and police on Tuesday and Wednesday night.

The State Bureau of Investigation has officially taken over the investigation into the shooting, making it unlikely that police bodycam and dashcam videos of the incident will be released publicly in the near future, city officials said Friday.

Mayor Jennifer Roberts, who has called for the release of the footage, said at a news briefing that she is convinced its early public release could affect the integrity of the investigation of the case.

"When you are still gathering eyewitness accounts, they are still talking to folks. If you have already seen something on the Internet, it can cloud your memory, it can alter what you think you saw. We want eyewitnesses to tell us without being led or having their memory changed by something they heard or saw."

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police chief Kerr Putney said he supported transparency, but did not want evidence, such as the video, to be released piecemeal.

"The intent is to get it out in a package, so that it can be consumed and fully understood," he said.

In any case, Putney noted that the issue is no longer in his hands since the case had been officially turned over to the SBI, an independent body.

The police has become a central focus of three nights of protests. Demonstrators chanted “release the tape” and “we want the tape” Thursday night while briefly blocking an intersection near Bank of America headquarters and later marching to the city government center. Later, several dozen demonstrators walked onto an interstate highway through the city, but they were pushed back by police in riot gear.

After two nights of violent protests, Roberts praised demonstrators and law enforcement officers alike for the largely peaceful night Thursday. "Last night was what a lawful demonstration looks like," she said.

Putney said three police officers and one member of the  National Guard was treated for minor injuries, compared to 44 arrests the previous evening.

He also said police made three arrests, including Rayquan Borum, who is now charged in the shooting death of Justin Carr during Wednesday night's demonstration.

Roberts credited the largely peaceful evening with a heightened presence of National Guard and state troopers on the streets and the reduction in the deployment of shield-bearing police in riot gear. She noted, however, that despite the easing of tension, the curfew remained in effect for Friday night.

At the heart of the dispute were two versions of what took place outside an apartment complex Tuesday afternoon.

Protesters took to Charlotte's streets for a third straight night and defied a midnight curfew in the US city, amid heavy security aimed at preventing more clashes over the fatal police shooting of a black man. Video provided by AFP Newslook
 

Police claimed Scott, who was waiting in his car for his son's school bus, got out of the vehicle with a handgun and refused to obey orders to drop the weapon. He was shot, police said, after officers determined he posed an imminent, deadly threat.

Several local residents, however, claimed Scott, 43, was carrying a book, not a gun, when he stepped from the car after police approached.

Asked earlier by CNN whether the video shows Scott holding a gun, Roberts replied, “It is not a very clear picture and the gun in question is a small gun. And it was not easy to see … so it is ambiguous."