Mecklenburg County, North Carolina District Attorney Andrew Murray announced today that there will be no charges filed against Officer Brentley Vinson stemming from the shooting death of Keith Scott on September 20.
Scott was shot during a confrontation with CMPD officers serving a warrant unrelated to Mr. Scott at the time. Scott’s family initially claimed he was reading a book. That story started to unravel when photos emerged of a .380 pistol at the scene of the crime. The D.A. didn’t find enough evidence to pursue a conviction. Indeed, the Charlotte Observer’s article on the story debunks the, shall we say “fake news” that surfaced in the wake of the shooting:
“I’m extremely convinced that Mr. Vinson’s use of deadly force was lawful,” Murray said.
Evidence in the case shows that Scott stepped out of his SUV with a gun in his hand, Murray said, and ignored at least 10 commands from the five officers on the scene to drop it.
Murray said that Scott bought the gun – a Colt .380 semi-automatic that had been stolen in Gaston County – 18 days before the confrontation for $100. One bullet was found in the chamber of the cocked gun, the safety was off and Murray said Scott’s DNA was found on the grip and slide.
The person who sold the gun to Scott admitted to doing so when confronted by state and federal law enforcement, according to a prosecutor’s report on the shooting. “The seller said that Scott asked him to find him a weapon because he was having problems with his wife and her family, specifically his nephew,” the report said.
Murray said that speculation in the community that Scott was unarmed – initial reports from a family member on Facebook said he was holding a book – were untrue.
“A reading book was not found in the front or back seats of Mr. Scott’s SUV,” Murray said.
Officer Vinson’s gun was examined after the shooting and four bullets were missing, Murray said. Analysts determined that the four shell casings found on the scene were fired from Vinson’s weapon. Guns taken from the other officers at the scene had not been fired, he said.
People who claimed on social media that they had seen the shooting and Scott was unarmed were later found to be in error – three people who’d made the claim told State Bureau of Investigation agents in interviews that they hadn’t actually seen the shooting.
Unfortunately, the debunking of these claims came a bit too late for many residents. The shooting sparked protests, led by activists from Black Lives Matter, over what they characterized as “institutional racism.” (Note: the officer involved in the shooting, Brentley Vinson, is African-American). The protests turned into riots that caused $4.5 million in damage to the city of Charlotte.
The UK’s Guardian newspaper reported that District Attorney Murray “pleaded with those angered by his decision to read the findings of state investigators.” Murray assured the public that “I would not hesitate to prosecute an officer who, the evidence showed, had acted outside the law.”
Blm folks and the sjw’s amongst us won’t be happy with these results.
This is wrong. The police on the scene obviously stole the book, planted the .380, and paid off the guy who “sold” the gun. They also obviously intimidated the nephew into causing trouble. This was a coordinated effort. Probably set up years in advance. Maybe even by George W. Bush.
The NRA and the gun lobby are in it somehow…I’m sure.
George Bush. It’s all his fault.
Come on now, you know that W was just a sock puppet controlled by Satan himself, Dick Cheney. Dick is actually funding BLM to finally trigger Manson’s vision of helter skelter.
Yea, that’s the ticket.
yeah, but which one? There are still 2 of em…
Ha ha! That’s a good one. You guys kill me.
I don’t think those ‘angry’ people know how to read.
LOL! The book story was the dead giveaway wasn’t it?
According to our soon-to-be former President and apologist in chief, it was easier for Keith Scott to get a gun than a book. So he didn’t have a book, he had a gun. Which explains everything.
Besides, what good is a book without crayons?
Crayons… That’s fucking harsh Ralph but I laughed really hard.
You’d think they’d figure out that in the right area you can knock over a liquor store, book store and gas station all pretty much at the same time and be set on entertainment for a while. It’s called a “strip mall”.
Yep. They seem to get alot of fun using the books and gasoline as kindling to start the fires they are so fond of, while they are given the “space to destroy”.
The new barbarians, but now they have been invited inside the gates, and given protection and privileges to ignore the law; while attacking the “bad guys” (once known as “law abiding citizens”) .
Only in the bizarro world of the Liberal/regressive are the law abiding, hard working, tax paying citizens to be considered the problem; instead of the ones burning, looting and assaulting innocent by standers.
At this point what difference does it make when thugs fail to comply with police commands \()/.
As usual, when the real truth comes out, it is hard for the scum to swallow–only because it was police involved shooting that they even care–if he was killed in his own ‘hood’, just another number & nothing would have happened–the “Black Lies Matter” movement is destroying what respect may have left for these people–Sheriff Clark, who is black, is the one whom I think coined the real name of ‘BLM’ to the ‘Lies’ part
Charlotte needs tougher “thug control” laws and a renewed commitment to the “war on thugs”. JUST SAY NO TO THUGS!
That dummy was carrying with a round in the chamber and no magazine. It would have been comical if the thief sold him a gun with a mag cutoff.
Michael Slager will probably be acquitted this week, also. Heads up, SC.
The jury has the case. One way or the other, it’s going to be interesting.
I live in SC and can’t really see a way to NOT GUILTY. I do think the jury might not think the case meets the level of the charges. But the deceased ran so slow a cripple could catch him and the cop obviously shot him in the back. All the cop had to do was follow at a Michael Myers pace and make the arrest.
Those damn cops senselessly murdering another innocent thug who wouldn’t drop his (stolen) handgun.
Really guys? Yes, the claims of police shootings motivated by institutional racism are inane (cops murder people of all colors). But is nobody going to point out how wrong this is? The man did have a gun, without a doubt. He failed to drop it, despite numerous orders being given to do so. HOWEVER, he never actually raised it. What would happen to any of us if we shot someone in identical circumstances? The DA would argue (almost certainly successfully) that the mere PRESENCE of a gun, absent a direct threat from it (as in, it being pointed at you), does not constitute grounds for the use of deadly force.
In other words, this is yet another case of a cop getting of scot-fee when a non-LEO would have ended up serving 25 to life.
I’d say a gun in hand is a direct threat. Go walk around a public place where OC is legal with a loaded gun that has the safety disengaged, see how far you get.
Do you have an actual case where a similar situation happened that resulted in a different sentence (preferably not from a state that has a strong anti-gun bias of course), or are you just belly-aching?
If your gun is outside your holster when a cop orders you to drop it you dun fucked up.
I saw the DA’s presentation on TV. Mr. Scott had a Colt .380 Auto, which came with no magazine from the seller. Scott bought a magazine and ammunition at a local gun store, but the magazine did not fit the pistol. That is why he had only the one round in the chamber. He had several rounds in a cigarette pack (box style) in his SUV. According to the seller Scott had contacted him about finding a proper magazine when the one Scott purchased would not fit. He also bought a holster from the seller which was modified somehow. All this per the DA’s presentation.
It’s hard to imagine what Scott thought he was doing drawing the pistol with only one round in it against several Officers, or why he ignored their multiple orders to drop the gun. Supposedly Scott had some form of PTSD and had just taken medication for it prior to his fatal encounter with the Police. Maybe the medication fogged his judgement. His death was easily avoidable had he simply dropped the pistol.
Several of the “witnesses” initially told outright fabrications and secondary investigative interviews caused them to recant their stories when confronted with evidence that showed conclusively they could not have seen what they told Police the first time.
There is a problem with Police shooting Black Men and Black “witnesses” muddying up the waters with fabricated accounts of the incidents. Makes it difficult to sort the justified shoots from the bad shoots. No one is learning anything from these cookie cutter repetitions and certainly no one is winning anything from them.
Despite the Charlotte DA’s thorough and reasonable presentation of the evidence concerning Keith Scott’s death, certain people will just claim he presented the “white peoples’ version” of the story and reset this tragic cycle to be played-out again and another person will die needlessly.
Maybe Scott was just really, really stupid. Most of the time, the simplest explanation is the correct one.
Most likely that’s the case. I was trying to be charitably nice.
The DA’s report said he was on about 8 prescription drugs, two anti-anxiety drugs, which can cause suicidal thoughts, and weed. He had drawn down on cops before and served time.
I saw some ninny on TV say that the reason the shooting was unlawful was because, regardless of everything else, there is no proof that the decedent had the gun raised- and that such a fact was key.
I would like to take that talking head to some simunitions practice and show him how fast I can go from “gun pointed down” to bang-bang-bang-bang and we’ll see if he thinks the same afterwards.
1. Wife lied about her husband having a gun and her lawyer now admits he had one.
2. Wife and family lied about which cop shot the husband, claiming it was a white one.
She knew these were lies when she told them and property was damaged, stores looted, people were beaten because they were white and downtown during the “demonstrations”, and one man was killed. She needed the shooter to be white cop so she could get a payday. There’s no racial element to the shooting if the black cop did it. Bitch has blood on her hands and should be prosecuted.
The only thing the cops did wrong in this situation is they didn’t protect the innocent for two days.
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