After police shot and killed Keith Lamont Scott earlier this week, his family immediately said that he wasn’t armed and was actually holding a book at the time. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney now says that there is video evidence that Scott was, in fact, armed but not that he was pointing his weapon.

“I did not see that in the videos that I reviewed,” Putney said, according to ABC News. “So what I can tell you, though, is when taken in the totality of all the other evidence, it supports what we’ve heard and the version of the truth that we gave about the circumstances that happened that led to the death of Mr. Scott.”

Despite Putney’s assertions that the video proves Scott was armed, he said that it wouldn’t become accessible to the public at the risk of impeding the investigation of the shooting. He did, however, say that the family would see the footage.

“We release it when we believe it is a compelling reason, but I’m not going to jeopardize the investigation,” he said.

It should be noted that North Carolina is both an open carry and a concealed carry state and that officers only encountered Scott while looking for a completely different person, a suspect for an outstanding warrant.

 

Photo: Scott Family

Author

  • Keith Reid-Cleveland is a proud product of Chicago's Southside and the Missouri School of Journalism. The Black Youth Project News Editor has written about politics, race and entertainment for multiple publications, such as Uproxx, The Undefeated, Black Nerd Problems, Comic Book Resources and more.