The Chief of Police Department, Charlotte, North Carolina on Saturday afternoon bowed to demands from protesters who wanted police videos on the shooting
of a man identified as a patient of traumatic brain injury. Charlotte’s police chief said that his department was convinced that the release of the video at this stage of investigations may no longer jeopardize what the public needed to know in terms of transparency and prevention of further degeneration of the situation around the city. Protesters have scammed out around the city for four days running denouncing the violation of first amendment rights in the handling of the trigger happy conduct of police officials.
This city’s leaders, faced with mounting demands for transparency after a fatal police shooting of a black man led to rioting, resisted calls on Friday for the immediate release of video of the killing and argued that a rushed disclosure could compromise a criminal inquiry.
The status of the police video of the shooting of Keith Lamont Scott, 43, and the shooting’s circumstances have been debated here for days, and the discussion deepened on Friday, especially after lawyers for Mr. Scott’s wife, Rakeyia, released a cell phone video that she took of the episode on Tuesday afternoon.
During a news conference shortly before Ms. Scott’s video became public, city officials alternated between declaring their commitment to openness and insisting that no official footage should be released before the conclusion of the inquiry by the State Bureau of Investigation.
The Charlotte police chief, Kerr Putney, warned that hastily distributed footage might endanger the city’s wary and fragile peace.
Additional reports from the New York Times