Protests after Charlotte police shooting of ‘unarmed black man’ Keith Lamont Scott leave 12 injured
ANGRY protesters have confronted police with signs saying "stop killing us" after a police officer fatally shot a black man, hours after another black man was shot dead.
The angry crowd gathered in Charlotte, America, after the man, named as Keith Lamont Scott, was taken to hospital and pronounced dead.
The protests left 12 people injured, with a video surfacing in the aftermath of the attack, appearing to show a distressed member of the victim's family yelling at police.
The video shows the woman confronting officers at the scene, screaming that the father of seven had just been reading a book while in the car.
She also said her father was disabled and had been waiting for his son to get off the school bus.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department tweeted that demonstrators were destroying marked police vehicles.
About 12 officers were injured in the protests, including one who was hit in the face with a rock.
Police used tear gas to break up the crowd which had gathered just hours after a similar demonstration in Tulsa, Oaklahoma, over the death of an unarmed black man - Terence Crutcher.
Before Keith was shot, Charlotte police went to an apartment complex at about 4pm yesterday looking for a suspect with an outstanding warrant.
Department spokesman Keith Trietley said they saw the man not the suspect they were looking for.
Officers saw the man get out of the car with a gun and then get back in, Trietley said.
When officers approached, the man got out of car with the gun again and at that point, officers deemed the man a threat and at least one fired a weapon, he said.
Officer Brentley Vinson, who shot Scott, has been placed on administrative leave, which is standard procedure in such cases. Vinson has been with the department for two years.
Protesters shouted "Black lives matter," and "Hands up, don't shoot!" while one person held up a sign saying "Stop Killing Us."
Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts appealed for calm and tweeted that "the community deserves answers."
In Tulsa, hundreds of people rallied outside police headquarters calling for the firing of police officer Betty Shelby, who shot 40-year-old Terence Crutcher on Friday in a confrontation that was captured on police dashcam and helicopter video.
Shelby's attorney has said Crutcher was not following the officers' commands and that Shelby was concerned because he kept reaching for his pocket as if he was carrying a weapon.
An attorney representing Crutcher's family says Crutcher committed no crime and gave officers no reason to shoot him.
Local and federal investigations into that shooting are ongoing.
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