Charlotte, North Carolina police officer Brentley Vinson, who shot and killed Keith Lamont Scott in September, will not be charged, the DA’s office announced Wednesday. Scott’s family has said that he was sitting quietly in his car when Vinson approached him. The District Attorney’s Office said today they have concluded Scott was armed when he exited the car and Vinson’s use of deadly force was justified.
Scott’s killing set off days of anguished protests in Charlotte. Police were at an apartment complex to serve a warrant on a different man when they came across Scott, 43, whose family has said he was reading a book in his car and waiting for his son to get home from school.
Police claimed that Scott exited the car holding a gun when Vinson, a black plainclothes officer, ordered him to get out, and released a photo of a gun they said they recovered from the scene with Scott’s DNA on it, as well as an ankle holster. But dashcam video didn’t clearly show Scott holding the gun.
Scott’s wife also filmed the shooting: she can be heard at the scene telling the officer that Scott had a brain injury:
RAKEYIA SCOTT: He doesn’t have a gun. He has a T.B.I. (Traumatic Brain Injury).
OFFICER: Drop the gun.
RAKEYIA SCOTT: He is not going to do anything to you guys.
RAKEYIA SCOTT: He just took his medicine.
Mecklenburg County District Attorney Andrew Murray announced Wednesday that charges won’t be filed because a “thorough review” indicated that Vinson “acted lawfully.”