A prayer vigil in honour of Keith Lamont Scott, who was shot by the police on Tuesday, turned into a violent protest in Charlotte, North Carolina, prompting the governor to declare a state of emergency, as riot gear-wearing police fired tear gas at demonstrators who threw bottles at police, blocked the interstate, threw objects at passing cars, jumped on vehicles, looted, vandalized a Hyatt hotel and attacked its employees.
One of the protesters was in critical condition and on life support after being shot by another civilian.
“Governor Pat McCrory has declared a State of Emergency upon the request Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney,” read a statement from the governor’s office. “The governor has also initiated efforts to deploy the North Carolina National Guard and the State Highway Patrol to assist local law enforcement.”
Charlotte Police Chief Kerr Putney initially reported that a person shot during the protest had died, but city officials later posted a Twitter message saying the individual had been hospitalized in critical condition on life support.
The city also said the gunshot was fired by one civilian at another, not by police. A police officer was also being treated for injuries suffered during Wednesday’s protests, it said.
The flashpoint for Charlotte’s unrest was Tuesday’s fatal police shooting of Keith Scott, 43, who according to police was armed with a handgun and refused officers’ orders to drop the weapon. His family and a witness to the shooting said Scott was holding a book, not a firearm.
The latest trouble began with a peaceful rally that turned violent after several hundred chanting demonstrators marched through downtown with brief stops at a black church, police headquarters and a large entertainment venue called the EpiCentre.
As they approached downtown Charlotte’s central intersection, protesters confronted a column of patrol cars and officers in front of the Omni Charlotte Hotel and began to surround groups of police and their vehicles.
Police then unleashed volleys of rubber bullets, pepper spray, tear gas and flash-bang grenades to disperse the protesters, who began hurling fireworks and debris at officers outside the hotel.
The use of lethal police force against African Americans has been the subject of nationwide protests across the US for two years.
To date, law enforcement officials have fatally shot 702 people this year, 163 of them black men, according to a Washington Post database tracking fatal police shootings.
