would make, be considerate of this family and allow us to conduct what we would call a thorough investigation behind the investigation. we don t even have the files yet. we will be getting those, and we will be pursuing the matter for mr. scott and his family. and we would ask the media to assist us in asking charlotte and the community to keep an open mind, to be to have a reasonableness, to remain objective and to support this family in their quest for justice. well, and let me say, we know that there are other members of this community who are going to be equally disappointed with this decision. but what rakia and the family want you to know, first of all, they appreciate all of the support and outpouring of love received from the community. there are still significant issues that need to be addressed, in terms of community police relations in charlotte.
they had a view but because of their distance, they say that he had something in his hands but they can t say what was in his hand. another witness was working in the area, heard the officers shouts but turned away when the shots were fired. mrs. scott has maintained that her husband was unarmed during the encounter. it s important to understand that we must consider her statements and weigh them along with all of the other evidence in this case. charlotte mecklenburg detectives began to interview mrs. scott at the hospital on the evening of the shooting. but she ultimately terminated that interview on the advice of her attorney. she and her attorneys later publicly claimed that cmpd never attempted to interview her. before that interview ended, she
important for the family the public to understand that this doesn t end our inquiry. there are differing legal standards that apply to a decision about whether an officer should be criminally charged for the discharge of their weapon and the use of deadly force and whether the department, the officer, or the city, should be held civilly liable for negligence in the way this entire situation was handled. we still have real questions about the decisions that were made that day in terms of how they confronted keith, how they reacted to the information that he had a brain injury and whether they used appropriate de-escalation techniques to end this situation in a way that didn t result in the loss of keith scott s life. so we look forward to having an opportunity to review the entire
that. the other piece of evidence which is interesting is none of the video, there was a lot of video from dash cams, body cam, to keith lamont scott s own wife shooting video with her cell phone, none of the video actually shows a gun in his hand. first of all, they not only show that he had a gun, they showed that he had and proved that he had that gun, with the evidence that it had been stolen and the individual who sold it to scott, that that s how he obtained that gun. the idea that he would be wearing an ankle holster without that gun in the event that he might find a holster on the street to fit that gun is absurd. the whole notion that just because the gun s in his hand and he doesn t pose a threat, i was a police firearms instructor, an fbi firearms instructor, s.w.a.t. team member, s.w.a.t. commander. i can tell you that wild bill hickok would have a difficult time winning that draw if the subject already has the gun in his hand because it would take less than a tenth of a
white officer shot him. the physical evidence does not support those claims and when questioned on some of these issues, this witness referenced someone s claim in a youtube video and it became apparent that he had incorporated information he had heard from other sources. investigators also went to his home to examine his vantage point. what they discovered is that it would have been very difficult, if not impossible, to make those observations due to the obstruction of a tree and the positioning of mr. scott s suv. basically from his apartment, there s a tree and it is the passenger side of mr. scott s vehicle. he would have had to see through the tree and through the passenger side to see anything occurring on the other side of the vehicle. two witnesses said they were inside nearby home and watched the incident unfold. they heard the officers commands to drop the gun. both indicated they saw something in mr. scott s hand but could not identify the object.