Keith Scott Police Shooting: Officer 'Acted Lawfully' During Killing, Won't Face Charges, D.A. Says

The Charlotte, North Carolina, police officer who shot and killed Keith Lamont Scott in September "acted lawfully" and will not face criminal charges, Mecklenburg County District Attorney Andrew Murray said at a press conference Wednesday.

The killing of Scott, a black man — which came two days after police shot and killed a black man in Tulsa, Oklahoma — set off violent protests in Charlotte, as demonstrators shut down a major freeway in the city, looted a tractor trailer truck and smashed windows in local stores.

In a statement, Scott's family said it was "profoundly disappointed" in the decision not to bring charges and asked that "any protests that may occur remain peaceful."

Murray, the district attorney, said the killing was justified because Scott was found to be carrying a handgun that had a round in the chamber, despite claims from his family that he was not. Scott's DNA was found on the slide and grip of the handgun, Murray said. The investigation also found the gun's safety was off.

Officer Brentley Vinson, who is also black, repeatedly yelled "Drop the gun!" before firing the fatal shots, according to video released by Scott's family.

“Officer Vinson acted lawfully when he shot Mr. Scott,” Murray said at a press conference that was carried live by cable news networks, including CNN and MSNBC.

Scott's wife, Rakeyia Scott, recorded the video that the family released. It was very shaky and did not show the incident clearly, but she can distinctly be heard telling the officers that her husband did not have a gun. The family said that he was instead holding a book, but investigators reported that no evidence backed up this assertion.

"A reading book was not found in the front or back seats of Mr. Scott’s SUV,” Murray said at the press conference.

Rakeyia Scott can also be heard in the video telling police that her husband had a traumatic brain injury and had just taken his medicine.

The officers, who were in the area looking for someone with an outstanding warrant, reported that Keith Scott had been rolling a joint in his car. They also reported seeing that he had a gun.

Murray briefed Scott's family on his conclusions prior to the announcement and described their reaction as "gracious." In his remarks, Murray noted that 15 other prosecutors unanimously agreed that the evidence did not support prosecuting the Officer Vinson.

The ACLU of North Carolina said the decision "leaves the people of Charlotte with profound and unsettling questions" about how law enforcement will make sure this doesn't happen again.

“There is a desperate need to invest appropriate time and resources and have policies to ensure that all Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers employ de-escalation tactics, avoid implicit bias, and take into account how mental disabilities can affect a person’s behavior," the statement, from policy council Susanna Birdsong, continued. "We also repeat our calls for Charlotte leaders to provide additional powers to the city’s Citizens Review Board in order to better enable community members to investigate police misconduct."

Originally, Charlotte police had begun the investigation into the shooting. However, following the massive public protests and outcry, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced that her office would look into the case. The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation took over for the Charlotte police when Rakeyia Scott requested an independent agency to review the case.

Many of the protests that followed the shooting called for the release of police video of the incident. Police Chief Kerr Putney eventually complied when the State Bureau of Investigation assured him that doing so would not hamper the investigation. However, as he noted at the time, the video evidence was unclear and would not decisively settle the facts of the case.

In Putney's view, the totality of the evidence suggested that the officer's story was correct. While no visual evidence showed Scott holding a gun, Putney was convinced that Scott was in possession of a gun at the time.

At Wednesday's press conference, Murray showed surveillance footage from a convenience store showing Scott with a bulge around his ankle, taken the same day as the shooting. This is consistent with the claims the officers made on the scene about an ankle holster.

There were also several people who said that had witnessed the shooting and believed Scott was unarmed. However, the State Bureau of Investigation discovered in interviews that these claims were not accurate and that these individuals had not in fact witnessed the shooting.

Cody Fenwick contributed to this report.

Photo credit: Screenshot of Rakeiya Scott's video