Keith Lamont Scott Was Shot & Killed By Police

On Tuesday evening, national news broke about a shooting in Charlotte, North Carolina, that has sparked major protests. Reports are still coming out about what happened to Keith Lamont Scott, the disabled Black man shot and killed by Charlotte police, and what we do know is heart-wrenching. Witness reports and police reports differ at this point in time.

According to local reports, Scott was shot and killed by an officer named Brentley Vinson. Vinson and his still-unidentified fellow officers were searching for a suspect with an outstanding warrant when they saw a man they claim was armed and threatening inside of a vehicle. The police report states that Scott was "armed with a firearm and posed an imminent deadly threat to the officers who subsequently fired their weapon striking the subject.” According to Charlotte-Mecklenburg police, the firearm allegedly held by Scott was recovered afterwards. The time that elapsed between the cops' approach and when Vinson shot Scott is currently unknown, but eyewitnesses claim Scott was tased and then shot four times.

Points of contention between witnesses and the police report exist — witnesses alleged Scott was unarmed, while police said they retrieved a gun from his vehicle. According to Scott's family, he was allegedly reading a book in his car while waiting for his son to be picked up from school when officers approached him. Bustle has reached out the the City of Charlotte for comment.

According to Scott's daughter Lyric, who live-streamed the events following her father's death in their apartment complex, she was asleep when she heard gunfire and went outside to investigate what happened. Lyric also said she learned that her father was dead from the news.

After news of the shooting broke in Charlotte, protesters took to the scene of the shooting in northeast Charlotte. Some photos tweeted from the ground show Charlotte police allegedly using tear gas to disperse the crowds after protesters allegedly began throwing bottles.

Scott's family told reporters that he was married and had seven children and described his as a "great man and great father," and that he waited on his son every day at the bus stop where he was killed. While Scott's daughter Lyric said in her live stream that Scott was disabled, the nature of his disability is still unknown.