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Curfew calms protests amid calls to show shooting video
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A THIRD night of protests over a police shooting in Charlotte gave way to quiet streets as a curfew enacted by the US city’s mayor ended early yesterday.
The largely peaceful Thursday night demonstrations in the city’s business district, watched over by armed members of the National Guard, called on police to release video that could resolve wildly different accounts of the shooting of a black man earlier this week.
On Thursday, the family of Keith Lamont Scott, 43, was shown the footage of his fatal shooting and demanded police release it to the public.
Demonstrators chanted “release the tape” and “we want the tape” while briefly blocking an intersection near Bank of America headquarters and later climbing the steps to the door of the city government center. Later, several dozen demonstrators walked onto an interstate highway through the city, but were pushed back by police in riot gear.
Still, the protests lacked the violence and property damage of previous nights, and the curfew encouraged a stopping point.
Forty-four people were arrested after Wednesday’s protests, and one protester who was shot died in hospital on Thursday. City officials said police did not shoot the man and no arrests had been made in 26-year-old Justin Carr’s death.
On Thursday, local officers’ ranks were augmented by Guard members carrying rifles and guarding office buildings against the threat of damage.
Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts signed documents on Thursday night to be in effect from midnight until 6am each day that the state of emergency declared by the governor continues.
After the curfew took effect, police allowed the crowd of demonstrators to thin out without forcing them off the street. Police Captain Mike Campagna told reporters officers would not seek to arrest curfew violators as long as they were peaceful.
So far, police have resisted releasing police dashcam and body camera footage of Scott’s death. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney said releasing the footage could undermine the investigation. He told reporters the video will be made public when he believes there is a “compelling reason” to do so.
Police have said Scott was shot after he disregarded repeated warnings to drop his gun. Neighbors, though, said he was holding only a book.
Putney said a gun was found next to the dead man, and there was no book.
Justin Bamberg, an attorney for Scott’s family, said that in the video, Scott gets out of his vehicle calmly.
“While police did give him several commands, he did not aggressively approach them or raise his hands at members of law enforcement at any time.”
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