In the cellphone footage filmed by Keith Scott's wife, Scott's body is shown lying prone on the ground after he was fatally shot by police. (Screenshot: Rakeyia Scott/NBC)
Disturbing cellphone footage of the fatal police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott, the 43-year-old black man whose death earlier this week in Charlotte, North Carolina, sparked days of protest, was just released by NBC.
The video was taken by Scott's wife, Rakeyia Scott, who can be heard pleading with police not to shoot her husband. She repeatedly tells the officers that Scott has a traumatic brain injury and that he is unarmed, growing increasingly distraught, before multiple shots ring out.
"He doesn't have a gun, he has a [traumatic brain injury], he's not going to do anything to you guys, he just took his medicine," Scott's wife pleads.
Watch the video (which is graphic and may be disturbing) here:
NBC described the scene:
In the two-minute, 12-second footage obtained by NBC News, Rakeyia Scott can be heard saying, "Don't shoot him, don't shoot him" as police appear to converge on a white pick-up truck in the parking lot of a condominium complex. "He has no weapon--don't shoot him!"
[...] "Keith, don't let them break the windows! Come on out of the car," she can be heard yelling, "Keith, don't do it!"
"Keith, Keith, Keith--don't you do it!"
At this point, it is "unclear whether she is telling him not to get out of the vehicle he's in," as the Huffington Post writes.
After the shots, Scott's wife screams, "Did you shoot him?'
Scott's family has repeatedly asserted that Scott was unarmed and reading a book in his car while waiting for his son to come home from school before he was shot. Police in Charlotte claim that Scott was armed and "posed an immediate threat" before he was shot and killed, which Scott's family disputes.
Rakeyia Scott's video has provoked further questions on that point, as The Intercept notes:
The video does not show the shooting, but it does offer a clear view of the ground around Scott's body 20 seconds after he was shot.
Those images of the pavement, clear of any objects near the victim's feet, are significant because they do not show a gun on the ground in the spot where police later claimed one was found.
On Wednesday police sources told a local NBC News affiliate, WCNC, that an image taken by another witness a short time later, after police tape was stretched across the area, showed Scott's gun on the pavement near his feet.
Protesters had been demanding the police release footage of Scott's death for days, but the police have refused, as Common Dreams reported. The family has viewed the police footage of Scott's shooting and said it left them with "more questions than answers."
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Disturbing cellphone footage of the fatal police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott, the 43-year-old black man whose death earlier this week in Charlotte, North Carolina, sparked days of protest, was just released by NBC.
The video was taken by Scott's wife, Rakeyia Scott, who can be heard pleading with police not to shoot her husband. She repeatedly tells the officers that Scott has a traumatic brain injury and that he is unarmed, growing increasingly distraught, before multiple shots ring out.
"He doesn't have a gun, he has a [traumatic brain injury], he's not going to do anything to you guys, he just took his medicine," Scott's wife pleads.
Watch the video (which is graphic and may be disturbing) here:
NBC described the scene:
In the two-minute, 12-second footage obtained by NBC News, Rakeyia Scott can be heard saying, "Don't shoot him, don't shoot him" as police appear to converge on a white pick-up truck in the parking lot of a condominium complex. "He has no weapon--don't shoot him!"
[...] "Keith, don't let them break the windows! Come on out of the car," she can be heard yelling, "Keith, don't do it!"
"Keith, Keith, Keith--don't you do it!"
At this point, it is "unclear whether she is telling him not to get out of the vehicle he's in," as the Huffington Post writes.
After the shots, Scott's wife screams, "Did you shoot him?'
Scott's family has repeatedly asserted that Scott was unarmed and reading a book in his car while waiting for his son to come home from school before he was shot. Police in Charlotte claim that Scott was armed and "posed an immediate threat" before he was shot and killed, which Scott's family disputes.
Rakeyia Scott's video has provoked further questions on that point, as The Intercept notes:
The video does not show the shooting, but it does offer a clear view of the ground around Scott's body 20 seconds after he was shot.
Those images of the pavement, clear of any objects near the victim's feet, are significant because they do not show a gun on the ground in the spot where police later claimed one was found.
On Wednesday police sources told a local NBC News affiliate, WCNC, that an image taken by another witness a short time later, after police tape was stretched across the area, showed Scott's gun on the pavement near his feet.
Protesters had been demanding the police release footage of Scott's death for days, but the police have refused, as Common Dreams reported. The family has viewed the police footage of Scott's shooting and said it left them with "more questions than answers."
Disturbing cellphone footage of the fatal police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott, the 43-year-old black man whose death earlier this week in Charlotte, North Carolina, sparked days of protest, was just released by NBC.
The video was taken by Scott's wife, Rakeyia Scott, who can be heard pleading with police not to shoot her husband. She repeatedly tells the officers that Scott has a traumatic brain injury and that he is unarmed, growing increasingly distraught, before multiple shots ring out.
"He doesn't have a gun, he has a [traumatic brain injury], he's not going to do anything to you guys, he just took his medicine," Scott's wife pleads.
Watch the video (which is graphic and may be disturbing) here:
NBC described the scene:
In the two-minute, 12-second footage obtained by NBC News, Rakeyia Scott can be heard saying, "Don't shoot him, don't shoot him" as police appear to converge on a white pick-up truck in the parking lot of a condominium complex. "He has no weapon--don't shoot him!"
[...] "Keith, don't let them break the windows! Come on out of the car," she can be heard yelling, "Keith, don't do it!"
"Keith, Keith, Keith--don't you do it!"
At this point, it is "unclear whether she is telling him not to get out of the vehicle he's in," as the Huffington Post writes.
After the shots, Scott's wife screams, "Did you shoot him?'
Scott's family has repeatedly asserted that Scott was unarmed and reading a book in his car while waiting for his son to come home from school before he was shot. Police in Charlotte claim that Scott was armed and "posed an immediate threat" before he was shot and killed, which Scott's family disputes.
Rakeyia Scott's video has provoked further questions on that point, as The Intercept notes:
The video does not show the shooting, but it does offer a clear view of the ground around Scott's body 20 seconds after he was shot.
Those images of the pavement, clear of any objects near the victim's feet, are significant because they do not show a gun on the ground in the spot where police later claimed one was found.
On Wednesday police sources told a local NBC News affiliate, WCNC, that an image taken by another witness a short time later, after police tape was stretched across the area, showed Scott's gun on the pavement near his feet.
Protesters had been demanding the police release footage of Scott's death for days, but the police have refused, as Common Dreams reported. The family has viewed the police footage of Scott's shooting and said it left them with "more questions than answers."