Police to release bodycam footage of Keith Scott shooting

Police in Charlotte, North Carolina, say they will release officer bodycam and dashcam footage of a controversial shooting of a black man last week.

Calls for the footage have mounted in the four days since Keith Scott was shot, and the decision follows the release of footage shot by his wife.

The family of Mr Scott say he was carrying a book and not a gun.

Charlotte police chief Kerr Putney told reporters the victim was "absolutely in possession of a handgun".

Speaking at a press conference, Mr Putney released the first real details from police on a case that has been mired in controversy and uncertainty.

Mr Putney said Mr Scott, 43, was in possession of marijuana and that he had committed another crime, which the police chief would not elaborate on.

He said that the officers who confronted Mr Scott were conducting surveillance when they spotted marijuana in the victim's car, and subsequently saw a gun.

In a video released on Friday, filmed by Mr Scott's wife, she can be heard telling officers repeatedly that he does not have a weapon.

Mr Putney said that the bodycam footage contained "no definitive visual evidence that he [Mr Scott] had a gun and pointed it at officers", but that police were satisfied he did.

Two videos are to be made public, one filmed by an officer's bodycam and another by a patrol vehicle dashcam.

Mr Putney said that the officer who shot Mr Scott was not wearing a bodycam, because not all Charlotte police tactical teams wore them.

The officer who fatally shot the father-of-seven was identified as Brently Vinson, who is also African-American.

Quizzed about claims that police were not at the location because of Mr Scott, and encountered him randomly, My Putney said: "They were intentionally detaining this man. It was to take this man off the streets."

He said that that police would release DNA evidence as well as the footage.

Asked whether any officers would be charged, he said: "No officers are being charged by me at this point, but there is another investigation underway".

The shooting is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

There are conflicting accounts of his death - police say he was armed and that a pistol was recovered at the scene; his family says he was holding a book.

Mr Scott's mother, Vernita Scott Walker, told South Carolina broadcaster WCSC he was probably reading the Koran.

She said he read the Islamic holy book every day, often while waiting for his son to get off the bus.

"That's what he was reading because he loved to read that book," said Ms Scott Walker.

Critics have accused Charlotte authorities of a lack of transparency overt the delay in releasing the footage, compared with the swift action taken after a police shooting in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where a white officer has been charged.