Charlotte Shooting: Disabled Black Man Keith Lamont Scott Shot Dead While Reading Book, Waiting For Son [Updated]

Update 10:45 a.m. ET, September 21: CNN is reporting that the name of the officer who fired the shots that killed Keith Lamont Scott is Brentley Vinson. Despite claims that Scott was unarmed, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney is insisting that he was carrying a handgun and that no book was recovered.

Officer Vinson was reportedly not wearing a body camera at the time of the shooting.

Update 11:15 p.m. ET: The name of the victim is being reported by The Root as Keith Lamont Scott. His daughter is Lyric Scott.

Original Article: A disabled black man is dead after being shot by Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina, police officers at about 4 p.m. today, as reported by CBS.

The Charlotte shooting was reported to have occurred as officers were searching for a suspect on an outstanding warrant at an apartment complex on Old Concord Road in the Charlotte suburb of University City, as reported by The Root.

The Huffington Post has reported on a statement made by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police that the disabled man, who was not the subject of the police search, “posed an imminent deadly threat to the officers who subsequently fired their weapon striking the subject.”

In contrast to the statements made by police, the victim’s daughter, neither of which has yet been identified by police, has reportedly made claims that her father had no gun and was instead reading a book, waiting for his son to be “dropped off after school.”

Reports indicate that paramedics were called and that police performed CPR on the victim, to no avail. The man was transported to the Carolinas Medical Center where he later died.

“The police just shot my daddy four times for being black,” the daughter of the disabled, black victim was quoted.

The number of shots fired by officers has been reported as both three and four. Police have yet to release their account of the number of shots fired. An eyewitness to the shooting was said to report that the man was tasered before being shot.

This is reported to be the sixth fatal shooting in the past year by members of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police. Each of the previous five deaths were ruled justifiable by district prosecutors.

Police say that while at the apartment complex searching for the suspect, a man armed with a gun got out of a car and then returned. Police report that officers then approached the car, when then man got out once again, with a firearm, and posed an “imminent, deadly threat.”

About 100 people were reported to gather in protest at the scene of the shooting, which was recorded in a Facebook livestream hosted by Lyric YourAdorable Scott, who claims to be the victim’s daughter, but who has not yet been independently verified. It has been reported that Ms. Scott learned of her father’s death through news reports, while protesters demonstrated at the scene of the shooting.

Members of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police force are reported to not wear body armor, but have been wearing body cameras since 2015. Despite this, three of the four fatal shootings in the past year were not captured on body cameras. Whether or not a shooting that occurred on June 3 was captured on the officer’s body camera is unknown.

Each of the officers involved in the shooting is reported to have been placed on administrative leave, as is standard procedure following fatal shootings. Preliminary investigations into the shootings are said to be underway by both the internal affairs department with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police and the criminal investigative bureau.

The Root compared today’s shooting with a 2013 shooting of Florida A&M football player Jonathan Ferrell, who knocked on the door of a home seeking help after a severe car accident.

Instead of offering help, the homeowner called 911. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer Randall Kerrick, who responded to the 911 call, was met with a deadlocked jury on voluntary manslaughter charges for his part in Ferrell’s death. It was reported that Kerrick shot at Ferrell 12 times and hit him 10 times, with eight of the bullets hitting Ferrell while he was on the ground, crawling.

Charlotte is the largest city in North Carolina; the greater metropolitan Charlotte area had a reported population of 2.4 million in 2014. The city is the seat of Mecklenburg County.

[Feature Image by Mihajlo Maricic/iStock]