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Wednesday, September 21, 2016
News Press conferences held in response to last night's unrest
Posted By Ryan Pitkin on Wed, Sep 21, 2016 at 12:49 PM
Charlotte officials and community leaders held two separate press conferences this morning in response to the unrest that followed the shooting death of Keith Lamont Scott by a police officer in northeast Charlotte yesterday afternoon.
The incident has underscored a growing distrust between members of the community and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, as statements from the department have been either disputed or ignored by those who are calling for justice for Scott.
As CMPD Chief Kerr Putney has spent the morning reiterating the department’s original claim that Scott was holding a gun when he was shot, Scott’s neighbors — some of whom say they witnessed the shooting — continue to dispute those claims, stating that he was holding a book and not a gun.
Some of these witnesses have even claimed that the department lied about who shot Scott. The department has said that the officer in question was named Brentley Vinson. Neighbors who say they witnessed the shooting have said to reporters today that the officer was white, while Vinson is black.
At a press conference at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center this morning, Putney said that no book was found at the scene of the shooting, only a gun near Scott’s body. He said he has watched some of the body camera footage from three officers on the scene with Vinson at the time of the shooting — Vinson was not wearing a camera — but that he “cannot see in totality everything that occurred” during the incident.
At the press conference, Putney said no body camera footage or still picture from the footage can be released by law because it is still a part of the investigation, while Mayor Jennifer Roberts asked that the public “give us time to get the right information.” It’s doubtful that the footage will ever see the light of day, however, as Gov. Pat McCrory passed a law in July regulating the release of such footage.
Putney and Roberts spoke of the chance of more protests tonight, after 16 officers were injured during unrest that took place in the University area overnight. Roberts asked that folks stay calm while Putney ensured those at the government center that his officers would be ready for protests tonight. He also stated that more arrests might be made in connection to last night’s protests, in addition to the one already made, as his officers review video footage of the unrest that blocked off portions of Old Concord Road, Harris Boulevard and I-85.
“Our intent is to bring everyone to justice who violated the law,” he said. Multiple CMPD vehicles were damaged and one tractor trailer was broken into on I-85 while blocked by protesters.Bottles, logs and dirt clods now being thrown pic.twitter.com/857UvKcLrZ
— Ryan Pitkin (@pitkin_ryan) September 21, 2016
During a press conference held by representatives of True Healing Under God (T.H.U.G.), John Barnett emphasized that it did not matter if Scott was armed during the time of the shooting, but only whether he pointed a gun at police. Putney had stated earlier in his press conference that he was unsure of whether Scott had pointed a gun, but that an armed person's body language and movements can be taken as a threat without that person necessarily pointing the weapon.
Barnett and others at the T.H.U.G. press conference, such as B.J. Murphy, called for an economic boycott by black people in the city of Charlotte, urging them only to spend their money at black-owned businesses.
“Take your money out of Northlake Mall, out of SouthPark Mall, out of EpiCentre,” Murphy said. “If black lives don’t matter then our dollars don’t either.”
At the end of the press conference, Barnett announced plans for a peaceful rally at Marshall Park at 7 p.m. tonight. There are rumors of other rallies and demonstrations throughout the city that have not yet been confirmed, but Creative Loafing will be following up on each of them. Follow on Twitter at @cl_charlotte.
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