Keith Lamont Scott, 43

Charlotte, North Carolina
September 20, 2016

Agencies: Attorney General’s Office North Carolina | Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department North Carolina

Cause of death: Shooting

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Last updated: over 5 years ago

Overview

Keith Lamont Scott was pronounced dead after an officer-involved shooting in northeast Charlotte on September 20, 2016. Hours later a large crowd had gathered near the scene in protest, sparking clashes with police and tear gas being deployed.

The shooting happened around 4 p.m. at The Village at College Downs apartment complex on the 9600 block of Old Concord Road. Officers said they were searching for a person with an outstanding warrant when they saw a man get out of a vehicle with a firearm.

When the man, later identified as 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott, got back into the vehicle, the officers approached. The report states Scott then got back out of the vehicle "armed with a firearm and posed an imminent deadly threat to the officers who subsequently fired their weapon striking the subject."

The officers said they immediately requested MEDIC and began performing CPR. Scott was then taken to Carolinas Medical Center where he was pronounced deceased a short time later.

Police said a firearm "the subject was holding at the time of the shooting" was recovered at the scene,.

"I don’t believe [the man shot] was the one with the warrants, but we don’t know if there was a connection," CMPD Chief Kerr Putney told reporters. 

The officer who fired the shot was identified as Officer Brentley Vinson. He has been with the department since July 2014.

A woman claiming to be Scott's daughter live streamed the scene on Facebook for more than an hour after the shooting. In the video, she said her father was unarmed when he was shot. She said Scott was sitting in his vehicle reading a book and waiting for the school bus to drop off his son. In the video, she is heard saying police came up to him, yelled for him to get his hands up and broke open the car window. She claims he was Tasered and then shot four times. In the video, she said her father was disabled and didn't have a gun.

The video showed tense interaction between the neighborhood and police as the police pushed the crowd back further as they widened their perimeter.

Legal Action

September 2016 Police Chief refuses to release Body camera video

September 2016 Governor of North Carolina declares a state of emergency and calls in the national guard

September 2016 Mayor imposes curfew from midnight to 6:00am

September 2016 Justin Bamberg the family lawyer demands release of tapes to the public

September 2016 Video shows no visible gun

September 2016 Eyewitness Account

September 2016 Planted gun

September 2016 CMPD is withholding more than 85 minutes of video footage from the public.

September 2016 CMPD Full tape released

October 2016 Keith Lamont Scott was struck at least three times by bullets fired by a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer, with at least one of the fatal shots striking him in the back, according to a private autopsy conducted for his family and obtained by The Washington Post.

On November 30, 2016, the prosecutor announced that the Charlotte, N.C., police officer will not face charges in the fatal shooting in September of Keith Lamont Scott.

June 2017 Citizens Review Board sees error in CMPD decision that Scott shooting was justified.

In August 2018, Scott's wife who witnessed the North Carolina plainclothes officer kill her husband, filed a wrongful death lawsuit claiming the police needlessly escalated an unconfirmed marijuana possession incident into a fatal confrontation.

Community and Family Efforts

September 2016 Demonstrator killed by police in second night of protests

September 2016 Not in Service

September 2016 NC NAACP statement

September 2016 Why all video should be released quickly

Livestreaming WJZY

October 2016 Funeral