Heartbreaking Facebook video puts spotlight on Charlotte police shooting
In the minutes after a police officer in Charlotte, North Carolina fatally shot a black man named Keith Lamont Scott on Tuesday, a woman who identified herself as his daughter got to the site of the shooting and started recording on Facebook Live.
In the video, which has around 691,000 views as of this writing, Lyric Scott confronts police who have already strung yellow tape around the area. Her Facebook page has since been disabled, but a version of the video exists on YouTube.
At the start of the video, she knows her dad's been shot. Slowly, she gets word that those bullets were fatal. Around 16:30, she breaks down.
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Warning: Video contains strong language
"They just shot my daddy!" she shouts. "My daddy is dead!"
A crowd gathers by the end of the video as police walk back and forth.
Officers were searching the area for a man with an outstanding warrant, though that man was not Scott, according to police. Officers then allegedly saw Scott step out of his vehicle carrying a gun. Moments later, Charlotte-Mecklenburg officer Brentley Vinson fatally shot him.
Charlotte residents said Scott, 43, had no gun, and was reading a book in his car while waiting to pick his son up from a school bus stop.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney insisted on Monday that officers had found a gun, but said they can't publicly disclose any evidence for the time being. He also said police did not find a book, and that Vinson was not wearing a body camera.
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"It is early in our information gathering," Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Robertson said at a press conference on Monday. "It’s too early for me to give any definitive judgement about the Department of Justice, any other resources we might need."
Protests following the shooting turned violent, as officers fired tear gas and rubber bullets into the crowd.
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Protesters smashed the windows of police and news vehicles, and set fires on a nearby highway.
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Police said 16 officers were injured during the night, though they didn't provide information on how many protesters were also injured. Video from the protest shows demonstrators running away from tear gas canisters.
The shooting in Charlotte took place as the nation had its eyes turned on Tulsa, Oklahoma.
There, Tulsa police officer Betty Shelby fatally shot a black man named Terence Crutcher as he stood alongside his car.
Colin is Mashable's US & World Reporter. He previously interned at Foreign Policy magazine and The American Prospect. Colin is a graduate from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. When he's not at Mashable, you can most likely find him eating or playing some kind of sport.
