Family releases shock video of Charlotte shooting

The family of the African-American man whose death has triggered days of unrest in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Friday released a dramatic video of the moment he was shot by police, raising pressure on authorities to make their own footage public.

Police have refused to release body-cam and dash-cam footage of the shooting Tuesday, which they say shows that Keith Lamont Scott posed a threat to officers.

The two minutes and 16 seconds of smartphone footage filmed by Rakeyia Scott, released by her lawyers to news media including AFP, does not show the shooting itself, but captures the moments surrounding it, as Scott's wife pleads with officers not to open fire.

"Don't shoot him, he has no weapon. He has no weapon. Don't shoot him," she is heard saying.

"He has a TBI, he's not going to do anything to you guys," she says, presumably referring to a traumatic brain injury. Neighbors have told AFP the 43-year-old Scott was disabled, and had a stutter.

Scott was shot and killed during a parking lot encounter with police searching for another person wanted for arrest.

Police say he had a handgun at the time. His family says he was holding a book.

As Scott's wife records, police are heard yelling "Drop the gun! Drop the gun!"

"Don't let them break the windows. Come on out the car," she asks her husband.

Four quick gunshots are soon heard, at which point the phone is pointed away from the shooting.

Moments later, Scott is seen lying face down on the asphalt surrounded by officers.

"Did you shoot him? Did you shoot him?" Rakeyia Scott screams.

- Clinton weighs in -

Scott's death was the latest in a string of police-involved killings of black men that have fueled outrage across America.

Pressure was already growing on investigators to release footage of the fatal shooting, after protesters defied a curfew and marched through the North Carolina city's streets for a third straight night.

Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate, weighed in on Friday, tweeting that police should release the video "without delay."

The victim's family have viewed the police footage and are leading calls for it to be made public.

Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts told reporters Friday she believed the video should be released -- but that doing so too soon could interfere with the probe, by leading witnesses to change their accounts.

The police, too, say that premature release of the video might interfere with a parallel state investigation.

"If I were to put it out indiscriminately and it doesn't give you good context, it can inflame the situation," argued Charlotte police chief Kerr Putney.

The smartphone video does not conclusively answer the question of whether Scott was armed.

- A contrast to Tulsa -

Charlotte's handling of the case contrasts sharply with a similar police shooting last Friday involving an African-American man in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

There, the video has been released and the white officer involved has been charged with first degree manslaughter.

In Charlotte, the officer identified as having shot Scott, Brentley Vinson, is black.

Hundreds of people gathered on Charlotte's streets Thursday night for passionate but largely peaceful protests, chanting "Release the tapes!"

North Carolina's attorney general, Roy Cooper, also came out Friday in favor of that step, in the interest, he said, of trust and transparency.

Joining the appeal for the release were the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP, the US black community's main civil rights organization.

According to a family lawyer, no gun is visible in the police video, which shows Scott stepping backward when he was shot.

"His hands are down by his side. He is acting calm," the lawyer, Justin Bamberg, told CNN. "You do see something in his hand, but it's impossible to make out from the video what it is."

Police chief Putney said the footage does not provide "absolute definitive visual evidence that would confirm that a person is pointing a gun," but that it indicates the officer was justified in shooting Scott.

"The officer perceived his failure to comply with commands, failure to drop the weapon and facing the officers as an imminent threat," Putney said on Fox News.

- Curfew extended -

Meanwhile, Putney said police have arrested a suspect in the killing of protester Justin Carr, who was shot during Wednesday night's unrest in Charlotte.

North Carolina's governor has declared a state of emergency in Charlotte, and several hundred National Guard troops and highway police officers were deployed to reinforce local police.

A midnight curfew will remain in effect Friday night.