CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP/WNCN) — The latest on police shooting and protests in Charlotte, North Carolina (all times local):12:25 a.m.
Four officers were injured during the demonstration, police said. All of the injuries are non-life threatening.12 a.m.
Groups of protesters are trying to stop cars driving on the downtown highway loop around Charlotte.
Footage from TV station helicopters showed about three dozen people on Interstate 277 trying to stop cars late Thursday night. Several cars made it through, dodging people.
It was the latest incident in a night of violence in Charlotte’s normally vibrant downtown. One man was shot and critically wounded, several reporters and people were attacked, windows were shattered and small fires set Wednesday night.
Police have not given an update on the number of people or police officers hurt.
There also were destructive protests Tuesday. North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory has declared a state of emergency and called in the National Guard.10:24 p.m.
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency in Charlotte as protests over a police shooting turned violent for a second night.
McCrory said in a statement late Wednesday he was also sending the National Guard to Charlotte as scattered groups of protesters continued to attack reporters and other people, break windows and set small fires in North Carolina’s largest city.
Wednesday’s protests started as a prayer vigil, but a group split off and marched through downtown. The march turned violent after a protester was shot and critically injured. City officials say police did not fire the shot.
After the shooting, police in riot gear began firing tear gas and marching through downtown arm in arm.
Keith Scott was shot to death Tuesday. Police say he had a gun, but neighbors and his family say he only had a book.
Mobile users click here10:48 p.m.
The city of Charlotte now says the civilian shot during the protests is not dead.
The civilian has life-threatening injuries and is on life support.
Charlotte officials say he was not wounded by a police officer.
The city of Charlotte made the announcement Wednesday night on its Twitter feed.
The man was shot as police in riot gear protected an upscale hotel in downtown Charlotte.
After the shooting, protesters began throwing bottles, dirt clods and fireworks at the officers. The police fired flash grenades and then tear gas back, dispersing the crowd of several hundred.
But groups of protesters kept marching around downtown, followed by police in riot gear who continued to fire tear gas at them.
The protesters were angry about the police shooting of Keith Lamont on Tuesday at his condominium complex. Police said the black man had a gun, while neighbors and his family said he was holding a book.
Video of the shooting has not been released.9:32 p.m.
A civilian was shot during the Charlotte protests and was not wounded by police officer, according to police.
A protester tackled a CNN reporter Ed Lavandera on live TV.9:10 p.m.
The emergency medical service in Charlotte says a person has been taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries from an apparent gunshot wound.
Charlotte Medic tweeted that the person was injured Wednesday night but didn’t give details.
The service says it has taken eight patients — seven law-enforcement officers and one civilian — to area hospitals during protests over the police shooting of a black man.
The Hornets’ team store at the downtown arena was looted after several windows were broken, according to WNCN.
9:12 P.M.:
There are reports one person has been shot.8:35 p.m.
Protesters have rushed police in riot gear at a downtown Charlotte hotel and officers have fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.
At least one person was injured in the confrontation, though it wasn’t immediately clear how.
Firefighters rushed in to pull the man to a waiting ambulance.
Officers on bicycles surrounded a pool of blood on the ground and a few people threw bottles and clods of dirt at police.
The tense standoff continued as police fired small canisters of tear gas into the protesters.8:30 p.m.
Groups of college students are descending on the condominium complex parking lot where a black man was shot and killed by a black Charlotte police officer.
One group of students came from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, about 80 miles away. Others came from Guilford College, also in Greensboro.
Meanwhile, students and faculty from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte canvassed the neighborhood, some of them offering words of comfort while others passed out water.
Before nightfall, a memorial was set up at the site where Scott was shot. People prayed and held candles, and flowers were placed beneath a table.
___8:10 p.m.
A prayer vigil over the fatal police shooting of a black man in Charlotte has turned into a protest march through downtown.
Several hundred marchers have been angry but peaceful Wednesday night as they shouted slogans like “Hands up; don’t shoot” and “Black lives matter” outside downtown landmarks.
Police blocked off streets, and some protesters yelled and pointed at them, but officers did not react.
The scene was in contrast to Tuesday’s protest, which turned violent with protesters threw rocks and damaged police vehicles.
___6:30 p.m.
The White House says President Barack Obama has called the mayors of Charlotte and Tulsa to get an update on protests after fatal shootings involving police officers and a black victim.
Obama made calls to mayors Jennifer Roberts of Charlotte and Dewey Bartlett of Tulsa.
The White House says Obama expressed his condolences to both mayors and affirmed the administration’s commitment to provide assistance as needed.
Obama and the mayors reiterated that protests should be conducted in a peaceful manner and that local law enforcement should find ways to calmly engage those protesting.
The White House says Obama will continue to get updates on the situations from Attorney General Loretta Lynch and White House adviser Valerie Jarrett.
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) – Authorities tried to quell public anger and correct what they characterized as false information Wednesday after a night of looting and arson added Charlotte to the list of U.S. cities that have erupted in violence over the death of a black man at the hands of police.
With officials refusing to release any video of the shooting of 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott, two starkly different versions emerged: Police say Scott disregarded repeated demands to drop his gun, while neighborhood residents say he was holding a book, not a weapon, as he waited for his son to get off the school bus.
The killing inflamed racial tensions in a city that seemed to have steered clear of the troubles that engulfed other places. Protesters have erupted on the streets Wednesday night.
As Charlotte’s white mayor and black police chief stood at City Hall and appealed for calm, African-American leaders who said they were speaking for Scott’s family held their own news conference near where he was killed on Tuesday, reminding the crowd of other shootings and abuses of black men.
John Barnett, who runs a civil rights group called True Healing Under God, or THUG, warned that the video might be the only way for the police to regain the community’s trust: “Just telling us this is still under investigation is not good enough for the windows of the Wal-Mart.”
On Tuesday night, a protest near the apartment complex where the shooting took place turned violent. Dozens of demonstrators threw rocks at police and reporters, damaged squad cars, closed part of Interstate 85, and looted and set on fire a stopped truck. Authorities used tear gas to break up the protests. Sixteen officers suffered minor injuries. One person was arrested.
The violence broke out shortly after a woman who appeared to be Scott’s daughter posted a profanity-laced, hour-long video on Facebook, saying her father had an unspecified disability and was unarmed. In the footage, she is at the cordoned-off shooting scene, yelling at officers.
“My daddy is dead!” the woman screams on the video, which has not been authenticated by The Associated Press.
On Wednesday morning, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney said: “It’s time to change the narrative, because I can tell you from the facts that the story’s a little bit different as to how it’s been portrayed so far, especially through social media.”
The police chief said officers were serving arrest warrants on another person when they saw Scott get out of a vehicle with a handgun. A black plainclothes officer in a vest emblazoned “Police” shot Scott after the officer and other uniformed members of the force made “loud, clear” demands that he drop the gun, the chief said.
Putney was adamant that Scott posed a threat, even if he didn’t point his weapon at officers, and said a gun was found next to the dead man. “I can tell you we did not find a book,” the chief said.
Neighbors, though, said that the officer who fired was white and that Scott had his hands in the air.
The three uniformed officers had body cameras; the plainclothes officer did not, police said. But the chief said he cannot release the video because the investigation is still underway. No cellphone video has emerged on social media, as happened in other cases around the country.
The plainclothes officer, identified as Brently Vinson, a two-year member of the department, has been placed on leave, standard procedure in such cases.
Scott’s mother described her son as a family man.
“And he was a likable person. And he loved his wife and his children,” Vernita Walker told The Charlotte Observer.
Scott has a lengthy criminal record, including convictions in Texas, North Carolina and South Carolina. Texas records showed he was convicted of evading arrest with a vehicle in 2005, and several months later, of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
The unrest took many by surprise in Charlotte, the banking capital of the South with a population of 830,000 people, about 35 percent of them black. The city managed to pull through a racially charged shooting three years ago without the unrest that erupted in recent years in such places as Baltimore, Milwaukee and Ferguson, Missouri.
In 2013, Charlotte police charged one of their own, Randall Kerrick, with voluntary manslaughter days after the white officer shot an unarmed black man who had been in a wreck and was looking for help. The jury deadlocked and the charge was dropped last summer. There were a few protests but no violence.
At the apartment complex where Scott was killed, some people who said they witnessed the shooting told their version with an air of certainty even when they were hundreds of yards away.
Taheshia Williams said her balcony overlooks the shady parking spot where Scott was Tuesday afternoon. She said he often waited there for his son because a bicycle accident several years ago left him stuttering and susceptible to seizures if he stayed out in the hot sun too long.
On Tuesday, she said, Scott had only a book in his hands and was following orders.
“He got out of his car, he walked back to comply, and all his compliance did was get him murdered,” Williams said.
The American Civil Liberties Union urged the police chief to release the video. And some leaders called for a black boycott of Charlotte.
“Since black lives do not matter for this city, our black dollars shouldn’t matter,” said B.J. Murphy, a radio host and leader of the Nation of Islam.
___
Associated Press writers Tom Foreman Jr., Jonathan Drew, Martha Waggoner and Steve Reed contributed to this report.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.