CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Police in North Carolina shot and killed a man carrying a gun Tuesday afternoon at a Charlotte apartment complex, officials said.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers went to the complex about 4 p.m. looking for a suspect with an outstanding warrant when they encountered the man — not the suspect they were looking for — inside a car, department spokesman Keith Trietley said in a statement.
Officers saw the man get out the car with a gun and then get back in, Trietley said. When officers approached the car, the man got out of the car with the gun again. At that point, officers deemed the man a threat and at least one fired a weapon, he said.
The man, identified as 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott, was taken to Carolinas Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
Detectives recovered a firearm at the scene and were interviewing witnesses, Trietley said.
Police blocked access to the area, which is about a mile from the campus of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, as protesters gathered after the shooting.
Video from WCCB-TV in Charlotte showed police in riot gear stretched across a two-lane road confronting protesters at the apartment complex later in the night. Some of the officers flanked the main line on one side of the road.
Some protesters were heard yelling “Black lives matter,” and “Hands up, don’t shoot!” One person held up a sign saying “Stop Killing Us.”
Officer Brentley Vinson was the officer involved in the shooting, department spokeswoman Cindy Wallace said in a new release. Vinson, who has been with the department for two years, has been placed on administrative leave, which is standard procedure in such cases.
The suspect’s race and Vinson’s race have not been released.
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