Keith Scott’s Wife Releases Shocking Footage of His Shooting Death to NBC
Harrowing new video footage obtained by NBC shows the death of 43-year old Keith Lamont Scott, who was shot to death Tuesday by police in Charlotte, North Carolina, sparking peaceful protests and violent riots throughout the city.
“Don’t shoot him,” Scott’s wife Rakeyia warns in the video, in a moment of foreshadowing that used to be reserved for the movie screen, but now seems par of the course on city streets throughout the United States. “He didn’t do anything,” she adds.
In the video Scott—who, as his wife explained to the officers, suffered from traumatic brain injury—is surrounded by police officers as Rakeyia attempts to diffuse the situation, telling the police her husband is not a threat to them.
Shortly after Rakeyia convinces Scott to get out of the car, gunshots erupt.
“He better not be fucking dead, he better not be fucking dead,” Rakeyia shouts. “He better live, he better live!”
The video, which NBC obtained “amid conflicting reports about whether a gun was found at the scene of the shooting,” appears to corroborate the family’s insistence that Scott did not have a weapon on him. Officers maintain Scott was carrying a weapon and refused to put it down at the officer’s orders.
Charlotte police claim that dash cam and body cam footage does not show definitively whether or not Scott was holding a gun when he was shot. The department has thus far refused to release their video evidence to the public, but they have shown it to the family. A lawyer for Scott's family said the video makes clear that Scott posed no immediate threat. “Mr. Scott’s hands were by his side, and he was slowly walking backward,” the lawyer said in a statement.
Watch the horriffying video below:
