September 24, 2016
By Richard Fausset, Alan Blinder and Yamiche Alcindor
...He did not appear (click here) to be acting in a threatening or erratic manner, although officers could be heard shouting, “Drop the gun!”
.
The police said that they had recovered a loaded gun with Mr. Scott’s DNA on it, and that he was wearing an ankle holster. They did not reveal where they had found the gun.
It appeared from the two angles that he had nothing in his right hand. It was unclear what, if anything, Mr. Scott, who was right-handed, had in his left hand. After Mr. Scott was shot multiple times and fell to the ground, his moans could be heard as officers handcuffed him..
He did not pose a danger to others. There remains no legitimate reason to kill Mr. Scott.
NC guns laws allow anyone to open carry a gun. If the gun was concealed it was illegal to carry it, but, that is a misdemeanor under NC law. The police have stated Mr. Scott was rolling a marijuana cigarette and flashing a gun when they were to serve a warrant on another person in the apartment complex.
There is no way to tell whether Mr. Scott was rolling a cigarette with tobacco or marijuana. The gun was suppose to be in an ankle holster so it would take more than a simple reach to show his gun in plain sight. BESIDES, if Mr. Scott was showing the police a gun it was an 'open carry' issue and not a concealed issue.
There was no way of knowing Mr. Scott had brain trauma simply by looking at him in the driver's seat of his truck. The NC law states, people adjudicated as mentally ill are not allowed to carry a gun.
Mr. Scott's gun was in plain sight ACCORDING TO POLICE, there cigarette Mr. Scott was rolling could have been tobacco or marijuana. And his mental condition also allows patients to purchase marijuana across state lines from a state that allows out of state sales. (click here) Additionally, there is a medical marijuana law proposed for the NC January 2017 session.
The facts are plain. The knowledge about Mr. Scott's ankle holster and his possession of marijuana was known after his death, not before. Mr. Scott from every angle according to the police report of his display of a gun and rolling a cigarette of any kind was still no reason for them to kill him.
Family members are legitimate ways of lowering any tensions between a subject and police. The family member that responded to Mr. Scott's circumstances could have helped in this case.
In the video "Times - Police Shooting of Charlotte Shooting" at 0.20 through 0.22 seconds the second officer in line was carrying a taser which was a viable means of ending the confrontation.
Mr. Scott should not be dead.
