Photo: Heavy

On Sept. 20 of this year, Keith Lamont Scott was shot and killed outside an apartment complex in Charlotte, NC by Officer Brentley Vinson. After the shooting, Scott's family stated that he was in his car reading a book and that he was unarmed. Today, Wednesday Nov. 30, Mecklenburg County District Attorney Andrew Murray announced that 15 career prosecutors unanimously decided that no charges would be filed in the case and that the officer's deadly use of force was lawful.

According to Murray, no book was found in Scott's car. There was a presence of diazepam, amantadine, babapentin, nicotine, nordiazepam and promethazine in Scott's system, which his family attorney said were used to treat the traumatic brain injury Scott sustained from a motorcycle accident in 2015.

Officer Vinson says Scott stepped out of his car with a gun in his hand and ignored the commands of officers to drop the weapon, but video of the incident doesn't clearly show whether he was armed or not and none of the videos show a gun in his hand. The body camera video released by police had no sound. A video taken by Rakeyia, Scott's wife, shows her yelling to officers not to fire and that her husband wasn't armed.

According to Murray, a gun obtained on the scene had Scott's DNA and fingerprints. Murray says, "All of the credible and available evidence suggests that he was, in fact, armed." 

Attorneys for the family of Keith Lamont Scott said that they "look forward to one day obtaining justice for Keith and his family" in a statement to the public.

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officer brentley vinsonpolice involved shootings