Protests Erupt In Charlotte Following Keith Scott Shooting

Protests broke out in Charlotte, North Carolina last night after a black man, Keith Scott, was shot and killed by a black police officer on Tuesday afternoon. Charlotte police officers were reportedly looking to serve a warrant on someone else when they encountered Scott, who was allegedly armed with a gun at the apartment complex. 

According to the AP, the Charlotte Police Chief, Kerr Putney said the officers on the scene gave 43-year old Keith Scott multiple warnings to drop his handgun before opening fire and fatally shooting him. However, Scott's family members claim he was carrying a book and not brandishing a weapon.

Police Chief Kerr Putney said during a news conference Wednesday morning that officers were searching for a suspect Tuesday when they saw Scott exit a vehicle with a handgun. He says the officers told him to drop the gun and that he got out of the vehicle a second time still carrying the gun. He says the man was shot because he posed a threat.

He says officers requested medical help and performed CPR on the black man.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney says officers recovered a gun that they say a man had when he was shot and killed by an officer.

Putney said at a news conference Wednesday that 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott had a gun, but no book when officers searched him and his vehicle. A woman claiming to be Scott's daughter said in a video posted on Facebook that her father was unarmed and had a book, not a gun.

Following the shooting, violent protests shut down a small section of Interstate 85. 16 officers sustained minor injured and at least one man was arrested. The cop who shot Keith Scott, Brently Vinson, has been placed on administrative leave while the incident is being investigated.

Numerous outlets provided footage of the protests which apparently included looting of semi-trucks and multiple fires.