Black man warned to drop gun before killing: US police

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON

A black man fatally shot by police was warned multiple times to drop a handgun he was carrying before officers opened fire, a North Carolina police chief said Wednesday.

Keith Lamont Scott, 43, was killed Tuesday, and his death sparked widespread protests in Charlotte roughly three hours later.

His family maintains that he was holding a book, and not a gun, when he was killed.

But Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney told a news conference Scott was ordered multiple times to drop a firearm, but failed to comply.

Police fired because Scott exited a vehicle still holding the handgun and posed a threat to the officers, Putney said.

“One of the officers felt a lethal threat and fired his weapon because of that,” he said.

Brentley Vinson, a black officer, fired the shot that killed Scott and has been placed on administrative leave in line with standard procedure.

The protests that tore through the southern city devolved into looting on an interstate highway overnight and resulted in about 12 officers being injured.

Video footage appears to show protesters raiding tractor-trailers, burning their contents on I-85 and damaging police vehicles.

Officers dispersed the protests with tear gas, and calm has largely returned to Charlotte’s streets.

Speaking at an interfaith gathering of black leaders, Min. B.J. Murphy of the Nation of Islam, called for Charlotte’s black residents to carry out an economic boycott in the city.

“Since black lives do not matter for this city then our black dollar shouldn’t matter,” said Murphy. “Nobody wants to feel our pain so the question is: ‘what are you trying to force us to do?’ And I’m saying take our money out of Charlotte and let’s put it in our own community.”

Nation of Islam head Louis Farrakhan last year called for a nationwide economic boycott by blacks during the important Christmas shopping season, in part, because of the killing of blacks by police officers.