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Wife of Keith Scott, Charlotte Shooting Victim, Filmed Police Encounter Video by Wife of Keith Scott Shows Her Pleas to Police
(about 4 hours later)
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A cellphone camera video made by the wife of Keith Lamont Scott as he was fatally shot by the police here shows the moments before and after the incident, including the wife’s pleas to her husband to get out of his truck and her pleas to the officers not to shoot him. CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A cellphone video made by the wife of Keith Lamont Scott as he was fatally shot by the police here shows the moments before and after the episode, including the wife’s pleas to her husband to get out of his truck, and her pleas to the officers not to shoot him.
But the video, which was given to The New York Times by lawyers for the family Friday, does not include a view of the shooting itself. Nor does it answer the crucial question of whether Mr. Scott had a gun, as the police have maintained. But the video, which was given to The New York Times on Friday by lawyers for the family, does not include a view of the shooting itself. Nor does it answer the crucial question of whether Mr. Scott had a gun, as the police have maintained. This question and others surrounding the case have transformed Charlotte into the latest crisis in the divisive debate over police treatment of minorities. In the last three nights here, hundreds of protesters have taken to the streets demanding justice. Many have done so peacefully. Others have vandalized property and clashed with the police.
One of the lawyers, Justin Bamberg, who is representing the family along with Eduardo Curry, said in an interview Friday that the video did not prove whether the shooting was justified or not. Rather, he said, it offered “another vantage point” of the incident. He said he hoped the Police Department would release its own videos of the shooting, as protesters have been demanding since Mr. Scott was killed on Tuesday afternoon. One of the lawyers, Justin Bamberg, who is representing the family along with Eduardo Curry, said in an interview on Friday that the video did not prove whether the shooting was justified. Rather, he said, it offered “another vantage point” of the episode. He said he hoped the police department would release its own videos of the shooting, as protesters have demanded since Mr. Scott was killed on Tuesday. The video provided a vivid glimpse of the drama that played out as Mr. Scott’s wife of 20 years, Rakeyia, first pleaded for a safe outcome to her husband’s encounter with the police, and then was heard reacting in uncomprehending horror as he was shot to death.
The lawyers said the cellphone video was shot by Rakeyia Scott, Mr. Scott’s wife on Tuesday afternoon. Mr. Scott had parked his truck in a visitor’s space in their apartment complex, where he often waited for one of his children to return home on a bus. The police were there to serve a warrant on someone else. Mr. Scott, a father of seven, had parked his white Ford Explorer in a visitor’s space at the apartment complex where he lived, about a half-mile south of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He often waited there, on a tree-lined stretch of Lexington Circle, for one of his children to return home from school.
The lawyers said Ms. Scott had come out of the apartment with a cellphone charger for her husband and noticed that police officers were around the truck. Officers of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department arrived in unmarked vehicles at about 3:54 p.m. to serve a warrant on another person. Ms. Scott left their apartment to bring Mr. Scott a cellphone charger, the lawyers said, when she saw the officers around him and began recording the scene on her phone.
The two-minute-and-12 second video begins with shaking images of grass and the voice, apparently that of an officer, shouting, “Hands Up!” The police department has said that officers saw Mr. Scott, who was black, standing beside his S.U.V. holding a handgun, then saw him get into the vehicle.
City officials have refused to release the police video of the shooting, saying they do not want to impede their investigation. The video, which lasts for two minutes and 12 seconds, begins with shaking images of grass and the voice, apparently that of an officer, shouting, “Hands up!”
The beginning of the video shows a view of Mr. Scott’s white truck, and multiple police officers around it. Mr. Scott is not visible. Immediately, Ms. Scott said, “Don’t shoot him,” and began walking closer to the officers and Mr. Scott’s vehicle. “Don’t shoot him. He has no weapon. He has no weapon. Don’t shoot him.”
Immediately, Ms. Scott says, “Don’t shoot him,” and begins walking closer to the officers and Mr. Scott’s vehicle. “Don’t shoot him. He has no weapon. He has no weapon. Don’t shoot him.” An officer can then be heard yelling: “Gun. Gun. Drop the gun.’’ A police S.U.V. with lights flashing arrived, partly obscuring Ms. Scott’s view, and a uniformed officer got out. From that point, there are five officers, most of whom appeared to be wearing body armor over plain clothes, around Mr. Scott.
(Full transcript below.) “Don’t shoot him, don’t shoot him,” Ms. Scott pleaded, her voice becoming louder and more anxious. “He didn’t do anything.”
An officer can then be heard yelling: “Gun. Gun. Drop the gun. Drop the fucking gun,” at the same time that another police vehicle, lights flashing, turns in front of the camera. Officers continued to yell “drop the gun” or some variation of it — at least 12 times in 38 seconds.
“Don’t shoot him, don’t shoot him,” Ms. Scott pleads, her voice getting louder and more anxious. “He didn’t do anything.” “He doesn’t have a gun,” Ms. Scott said. “He has a T.B.I.” — an abbreviation for a traumatic brain injury the lawyers said Mr. Scott sustained in a motorcycle accident in November 2015. “He’s not going to do anything to you guys. He just took his medicine.”
By this time, 20 seconds into the video, Ms. Scott is standing behind two police cars and walking closer and closer to the scene. “Drop the gun,” an officer screamed again as Ms. Scott tried to explain her husband’s condition. The officer then said he needed to get a baton.
“He doesn’t have a gun,” Ms. Scott says. “He has a T.B.I.” — an abbreviation for the traumatic brain injury the lawyers said Mr. Scott sustained in a motorcycle accident in November 2015. “He’s not going to do anything to you guys. He just took his medicine.” “Keith, don’t let them break the windows. Come on out the car,” Ms. Scott said, as the video showed an officer approaching Mr. Scott’s vehicle.
“Drop the gun,” an officer screams as the wife tries to explain her husband’s condition. “Let me get a fucking baton over here.” “Drop the gun,” an officer shouted again.
“Keith don’t let them break the windows. Come up out the car,” Ms. Scott says, as the video shows an officer approaching Mr. Scott’s vehicle. Ms. Scott yelled several times for her husband to “get out the car,” but on the video, he cannot be seen through the window of the S.U.V.
“Drop the gun,” an officer shouts again. “Keith, don’t do it,” Ms. Scott shouted, as the video showed her backing away and panning to the ground.
“Keith, don’t do it,” Ms. Scott shouts, as the video shows her backing away a bit and panning to the ground. “Keith, get out of the car. Keith, Keith. Don’t you do it. Don’t you do it, Keith.” Mr. Bamberg said that Ms. Scott was trying, in those statements, to “get him to stand still” after he got out of the car.
Mr. Bamberg said that Ms. Scott was trying, in those statements, to “get him to stand still” after he eventually got out of the car. It is only in the final moments before the shots — less than two seconds on the video — that the camera panned back and Mr. Scott can be seen, still unhurt. He was standing between the vehicles and officers, wearing bright aqua pants, a dark T-shirt and a white ball cap, his head turning from side to side.
Fifty seconds into the video, gunshots ring out. Neither of his hands — and what, if anything, he was holding — could be seen clearly. Friends and neighbors have raised the possibility that he was holding a book. The police claimed he was holding a gun, and that a gun was recovered from the scene. But the police chief, Kerr Putney, has acknowledged that in police videos of the shootings, he could not see Mr. Scott’s hands.
“Did you shoot him? Did you shoot him?” Ms. Scott shouts, her voice getting louder with each second. “Did you shoot him? He better not be fucking dead. He better not be fucking dead. I know that fucking much. I know that much. He better not be dead.” “The video does not give me absolute, definitive visual evidence that would confirm that a person is pointing a gun,” he said on Thursday.
The video then shows Mr. Scott laying on the ground with officers around him. Fifty seconds into Ms. Scott’s video, four shots ring out. The police department has identified the officer who fired as Brentley Vinson, 26, who is black, and has been with the force since 2014.
“I’m not going to come here. I’m going to record, though,” Ms. Scott said. “I’m not coming near you. I’m going to record, though. He better be alive because — he better be alive.” Ms. Scott seems to flinch at the first gunshot, and the picture immediately leaves her husband.
Mr. Bamberg said of the video: “Right now we don’t have enough facts to say whether this shooting was justified or unjustified. That’s what we’re trying to find out. “Did you shoot him? Did you shoot him?” Ms. Scott shouted, her voice becoming louder each second. “Did you shoot him? He better not be [expletive] dead.”
“One reason why this video is being released,” he said, “is we wanted to give the city and Police Department the opportunity to do the right thing and release the videos they have available that clarify the situation a bit, and could potentially answer some of the outstanding questions.” She moved closer, and the video showed Mr. Scott lying face down on the pavement, his white sneakers pointed to the camera, with officers standing and kneeling around him.
Chief Kerr Putney of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police has brushed aside demands by activists, community leaders and the news media to make the police videos public. “We release it when we believe there is a compelling reason,” he said. “I’m not going to come near you. I’m going to record, though,” Ms. Scott said. “I’m not coming near you. I’m going to record, though. He better be alive.”
The chief said that eyewitness accounts and other evidence suggested that Mr. Scott had been holding a pistol when he was shot, and that a weapon had been found at the scene. But, he also said the police videos may leave more questions. Mr. Bamberg said of the video: “Right now, we don’t have enough facts to say whether this shooting was justified or unjustified. That’s what we’re trying to find out.”
“The video does not give me absolute, definitive visual evidence that would confirm that a person is pointing a gun,” Mr. Putney said. The lawyers also brought attention to an object that they said can be seen on the ground near Mr. Scott after was shot. They said the object seemed to appear in the video after the camera panned away briefly, in a place where no object was previously visible. A number of observers have accused the police of planting a gun, but the lawyers did not go that far.
Until they viewed the police videos on Thursday afternoon, Mr. Scott’s relatives had said they were uncertain whether they should be released to the public, according to Mr. Bamberg. “We are not saying that anything was planted. We are not saying that there’s something fishy going on,” Mr. Bamberg said. “What we’re saying is that this is one of the viewpoints that are available.”
While the family members differed with the police on some major points about the videos, they seemed to be in agreement with Chief Putney on one aspect. “It is impossible to discern from the videos what, if anything, Mr. Scott is holding in his hands,” they said in a statement. The video had been widely viewed both online and on television by Friday afternoon. City and police officials did not respond to Ms. Scott’s video.
Mr. Bamberg and Mr. Curry reiterated this point in an interview Friday. But in a statement on Friday, Jennifer Roberts, the mayor of Charlotte, pressed the state’s Bureau of Investigation to speed up its efforts to release the police recordings.
They also described the two police videos — one a dash-cam video and the other a body-camera video — that the police allowed the lawyers and family members to view this week. The body-camera video, Mr. Bamberg said, provides few significant details of the shooting. But he said the dash-cam video showed two officers taking up positions behind a pickup truck and yelling commands at Mr. Scott, who was inside his vehicle at the time. “I urge it to use every resource at its disposal to get this done, and release the information to the public as quickly as possible,” she said.
The video, the lawyers said, appeared to show that the driver’s-side front window was rolled up. Chief Putney arranged for the Scott family and their lawyers to privately view two police videos on Thursday. Beforehand, they had been uncertain whether the videos should be released to the public, Mr. Bamberg said, but after seeing them, they called for release of the recordings. While the family members differed with the police on some major points about the videos, they seemed to be in agreement with the police chief on one aspect. “It is impossible to discern from the videos what, if anything, Mr. Scott is holding in his hands,” they said in a statement.
The video, Mr. Bamberg said, then shows Mr. Scott stepping out of the vehicle, his hands by his sides, with his right hand empty and “some type of object” in his left hand. “It’s impossible to make out what it is,” the lawyer said. Mr. Bamberg and Mr. Curry also described the two police videos — one from a dashboard camera and the other from a body camera — that the police allowed the lawyers and family members to view. The body-camera video, Mr. Bamberg said, provided few significant details of the shooting. But he said the dashboard video showed two officers taking up positions behind a pickup truck and yelling commands at Mr. Scott, who was inside his vehicle.
The dashboard video, the lawyers said, appeared to show that the front window on the driver’s side was rolled up.
The video, Mr. Bamberg said, then showed Mr. Scott stepping out of the vehicle, his hands down, with his right hand empty and “some type of object” in his left hand. “It’s impossible to make out what it is,” the lawyer said, noting that Mr. Scott was right-handed.
“He doesn’t make any dramatic movements,” Mr. Bamberg said. He also said Mr. Scott seemed “confused.”“He doesn’t make any dramatic movements,” Mr. Bamberg said. He also said Mr. Scott seemed “confused.”
Mr. Scott takes a couple of steps forward “in a nonaggressive manner,” the lawyer said, and then a step back. Then shots are fired. In the video, Mr. Scott took a couple of steps forward “in a nonaggressive manner,” the lawyer said, and then a step back. Then shots were fired.
In other developments, police officials said Friday that they had arrested a man in the shooting death Wednesday night of a man at a demonstration protesting Mr. Scott’s death. Chief Putney said officers had arrested Rayquan Borum and charged him in the death of Justin Carr, who was fatally shot near the Omni Hotel as demonstrators marched through the streets. According to court records, Mr. Scott, who was born in South Carolina, was charged in that state with a number of offenses including check fraud, aggravated assault and carrying a concealed weapon. Later, he moved to Texas where he shot and wounded a man in San Antonio in 2002. He was convicted and sentenced, in 2005, to seven years in prison, and was released in 2011.
“We have already established probable cause and made that arrest,” Chief Putney said, adding that the investigation was continuing. His lawyer in the Texas shooting case, Gloria Yates Early, said Mr. Scott had claimed his family was being “stalked.”
At a news conference on Friday, Charlotte officials repeatedly said that the police videos should not be released without a full report. “Allegedly, people were following them around with weapons, pointing them at their bodies,” Ms. Early said. “He carried a gun around and he admitted to shooting a guy. He alleged self-defense of himself and his family.”
“If I were to put it out indiscriminately, and it doesn’t give you good context, it can inflame the situation and make it even worse,” Chief Putney said. “It will exacerbate the backlash. It will increase the distrust. So that is where discernment, judgment and reasonableness have to come in.” When asked on Friday if Ms. Scott knew whether her husband owned a gun at the time he was shot by police, Mr. Curry replied, “Not that she knew of.”
But pressure continued to mount on the city, and the state’s attorney general, Roy Cooper, soon after called for the police videos to be released.
“We must continue in the pursuit of truth while also continuing the important work of bringing our communities and law enforcement together to build trust and safety for all,” said Mr. Cooper, who is also the Democratic nominee for governor. “One step toward meeting both goals is for the videos in this case to be released to the public.”
In an interview that aired Friday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” President Obama spoke in general terms about the national debate over police conduct.
“I think it’s important to separate out the pervasive sense of frustration among a lot of African-Americans about shootings of people, and the sense that justice is not always colorblind,” Mr. Obama said.
The president cautioned, however, that illegal behavior during protests was “not going to advance the cause.”
“In Charlotte,” he said, “my hope is that in the days to come, that people in the community pull together and say, ‘How do we do this the right way?’”
———
Following is a transcript of the video:
OFFICER: Hands up!
RAKEYIA SCOTT: Don’t shoot him. Don’t shoot him. He has no weapon. He has no weapon. Don’t shoot him.
OFFICER: Don’t shoot. Drop the gun. Drop the fucking gun.
RAKEYIA SCOTT: Don’t shoot him. Don’t shoot him.
OFFICER: Drop the gun.
RAKEYIA SCOTT: He didn’t do anything.
OFFICER: Drop the gun. Drop the gun.
RAKEYIA SCOTT: He doesn’t have a gun. He has a T.B.I. (Traumatic Brain Injury).
OFFICER: Drop the gun.
RAKEYIA SCOTT: He is not going to do anything to you guys.
RAKEYIA SCOTT: He just took his medicine.
OFFICER: Drop the gun. Let me get a fucking baton over here. [muffled]
RAKEYIA SCOTT: Keith, don’t let them break the windows. Come on out the car.
OFFICER: [muffled]
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]
RAKEYIA SCOTT: Fuck. Did you shoot him? Did you shoot him? Did you shoot him? He better not be fucking dead.He better not be fucking dead. I know that fucking much. I know that much. He better not be dead. I’m not going to come near you. I’m going to record, though. I’m not coming near you. I’m going to record, though.He better be alive because ...I come You better be alive. How about that?Yes, we here, over here at 50 ... 50 ...9453 Lexington Court. These are the police officers that shot my husband, and he better live. He better live. Because he didn’t do nothing to them.
OFFICER: Is everybody good? Are you good?
RAKEYIA SCOTT: He good. Nobody ... touch nobody, so they’re all good.
OFFICER: You good?
RAKEYIA SCOTT: I know he better live. I know he better live. How about that I’m not coming to you guys, but he’d better live. He better live. You all hear it, you see this, right? He better live.
OFFICER: [muffled]
RAKEYIA SCOTT: He better live. I swear, he better live. Yep, he better live. He better fucking live. He better live. Where is...He better fucking live, and I can’t even leave the damn...I ain’t going nowhere. I’m staying in the same damn spot. What the fuck. That’s O.K. did you all call the police? I mean, did you all call an ambulance?