Video Footage Sheds Some Light On Keith Lamont Scott Shooting

A new video proof in Keith Lamont Scott case has surfaced.

A recently released video footage from the Keith Lamont Scott shooting shows Charlotte police officers pointing their weapons at him, holding him at gunpoint before yelling orders to drop the gun. A few moments later the officers open fire and killed him.

The video footage, which was recorded by the deceased’s wife Rakeyia Scott, unfortunately, doesn’t meet the requirements of the standard of proof in a criminal trial. Though no gun could be seen in the video, it also can’t be said that the victim doesn’t have one, as the video was at times shaky and not at a direct angle.

Mrs. Scott can be heard in the video letting the officers know her husband isn’t carrying a gun. She yells at her husband, “Keith, don’t you do it” as he exited an SUV.

The shooting itself wasn’t caught on camera because the victim’s wife had the camera facing the grass, but the sounds of shots fired are in the footage. She must have been devastated to have witnessed the killing of her husband in front of her. She screamed: “Did you shoot him? Did you shoot him?” in absolute disbelief after four shots were fired.

The question remains, was Scott carrying a gun or not? There have been conflicting reports about whether a gun was found at the scene or not. Police have stated that he was armed and posed “an imminent, deadly threat”, which prompted them to kill him. But his family claimed otherwise, saying neither was he armed nor did he pose any threat.

Why would it matter, though? After all, the video offers no proof that Scott was pointing any gun at the officers. Even if he was carrying a firearm, North Carolina is an open carry state, which obviously means residents are allowed to carry guns. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg police chief said dash cam footage of the shooting exists, but it also isn’t clear enough to see whether Scott was holding a gun or not.

Scott worked as a security guard at a shopping mall for about a year before he got into a motorcycle crash, in which he suffered severe injuries to his hips, nose, and brain. The brain injury he suffered caused him to stutter when he spoke and sometimes he easily forgot whatever he said.

Scott worked at the Eastridge Mall in Gastonia, North Carolina, from November 2014 to October 2015. The mall’s head of security, Robert Barringer said that “he did as he was told” during his work shifts.

Scott’s wife begged the officers not to shoot and tried to convince them her husband wasn’t carrying a weapon. But of course, the trigger happy officers just had to fire their weapons at a Black man. The cops didn’t even bother to listen to what Rakeyia Scott was saying. In that situation, nobody listened to the voice of reason, and nobody heard the voice of a Black person.

Source: PINAC