Violent Black Rioters Erupt in Charlotte After an Officer Involved Shooting
This has the potential to get uglier as time goes by. Protests have been going on all evening and into today after an officer involved shooting that left 43 year old Keith Lamont, dead.
More details from WBTV:
Hours after the deadly shooting, a large crowd had gathered near the scene in protest, sparking clashes with police and tear gas being deployed.
Interstate 85 was shut down in both directions near Harris Boulevard overnight as protesters roamed the highway. All lanes reopened early Thursday morning. Protesters moved to a Walmart on N. Tryon Street, breaking glass doors at the entrance.
CMPD says several arrests were made overnight, but the number was kept to around five people.
At least 10 officers suffered injuries during the protests. Medic said Thursday they took seven officers and one civilian to area hospitals.
The shooting happened around 4 p.m. Tuesday at The Village at College Downs apartment complex on the 9600 block of Old Concord Road. Officers said they were searching for a person with an outstanding warrant when they saw a man get out of a vehicle with a firearm.
When the man, later identified as 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott, got back into the vehicle, the officers approached. The report states Scott then got back out of the vehicle “armed with a firearm and posed an imminent deadly threat to the officers who subsequently fired their weapon striking the subject.”
The officers said they immediately requested MEDIC and began performing CPR. Scott was then taken to Carolinas Medical Center where he was pronounced deceased a short time later.
Investigators say a gun was found at the scene, but whether Lamont was armed or not is a matter of dispute at the moment:
A woman claiming to be Scott’s daughter live streamed the scene on Facebook for more than an hour after the shooting.
In the video, she said her father was unarmed when he was shot.
She said Scott was sitting in his vehicle reading a book and waiting for the school bus to drop off his son. In the video, she is heard saying police came up to him, yelled for him to get his hands up and broke open the car window.
She claims he was Tasered and then shot four times. In the video, she said her father was disabled, didn’t have a gun and was even scared of them.
The video showed tense interaction between the neighborhood and police as the police pushed the crowd back further as they widened their perimeter.
A woman claiming to be Lamont’s sister, also says he was not armed:
Here’s the man’s sister. She says he did not have a gun. @CMPD says he did. @WBTV_News pic.twitter.com/JwHMixy9m7
— Sarah-Blake Morgan (@SarahBlakeWBTV) September 20, 2016
That led to protests that began to get violent. A total of 12 police officers were injured. One was hit in the face with a brick. The protesters started fires:
@CNNNewsource @wsoctv #not protestors,but thugs !
— Pastor Ron Roddey (@RonRoddey) September 21, 2016
Protesters attacked a police vehicle:
NC PROTESTS POLICE CAR – AERIALS Protesters attacking police car in Charlotte https://t.co/8XJ7kdWbru pic.twitter.com/07NKUR6EWV
— AP USVideoAlert (@AP_USVideoAlert) September 21, 2016
UPDATE: Video shows protesters looting trucks:
