Wife of man slain by Charlotte police pleaded with police not to shoot him, her video indicates
Updated: The wife of the man shot and killed by Charlotte police told police he didn’t have a weapon, though an officer repeatedly ordered him to “drop the gun,” according to a cellphone video she recorded.
The video recorded by Rakeyia Scott, wife of Keith Lamont Scott, does not show a view of the shooting itself and doesn’t show whether Keith Scott had a gun, the New York Times reports. The video offers “another vantage point” of the incident, a lawyer representing the family told the Times.
Police on Saturday released their own video of the incident, but it isn’t clear whether Scott was holding a gun, report the Charlotte Observer and the New York Times. His arms were down, however, when he was shot.
Keith Scott was inside his car, in the parking lot of his apartment building where he often waited for one of his children to come home from school, when Rakeyia Scott came outside with a cellphone charger for her husband and saw the police.
In a Times transcript of the conversation from her recorded video, Rakeyia Scott tells police, “Don’t shoot him. Don’t shoot him. He has no weapon. He has no weapon. Don’t shoot him.” The officer, however, is heard saying, “Don’t shoot. Drop the gun. Drop the f—ing gun.”
Rakeyia Scott continues to plead with police not to shoot her husband and the officer continues to order Keith Scott to drop the gun. At one point, Rakeyia Scott tells the officer her husband had “a T.B.I., which is a reference to traumatic brain injury.
The officer is then heard calling for a baton, and Rakeyia Scott pleads with her husband, “Keith, don’t let them break the windows. Come on out the car.”
This conversation follows:
Officer: “Drop the gun.”
Rakeyia Scott: “Keith! Don’t you do it.”
Officer: “Drop the gun.”
Rakeyia Scott: “Keith, get out the car. Keith! Keith! Don’t you do it! Don’t you do it! Keith!”
Officer: “Drop the gun.”
Rakeyia Scott: “Keith! Keith! Keith! Don’t you do it!”
Shots are heard and Rakeyia Scott demands to know if the officer shot her husband.
The police video indicates that officers had hit the passenger side windows of Keith Scott’s car with a baton, leading Scott to exit the vehicle. According to the Times description, “He turns as he is stepping backward. The right leg of his blue pants is noticeably hiked up, revealing something dark above his shoe. The police said they recovered an ankle holster from the scene.”
Scott walks backward with his arms at his side. It’s not clear whether he is holding a gun. Police fire their guns, and Scott falls to the ground.
The officer who shot Scott was not wearing a body cam.
Police had spotted Scott in his vehicle when they were in the area to serve an arrest warrant on another person. Police say they saw him rolling a marijuana cigarette, and were going to let it go until they saw a gun in the car. Police say Scott was still holding a gun when he exited the vehicle. His DNA and fingerprints were found on the loaded gun recovered at the scene, according to police.
Updated on Sept. 26 to include subsequent stories on release of the police video.
