The police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott last month by a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer is back in the news. Scott was a father of seven and was standing next to his car on September 20, 2016 when officer Brentley Vinson opened fire and killed him. Police stated that he was erratic, had a gun and refused to respond to orders. Officers were at The Village at College Downs apartment complex on the 9600 block of Old Concord Road serving a warrant to another man, not Scott.
Scott’s shooting led to days of violent protests in the streets of Charlott from outraged members of the Black community. The results for Scott’s official autopsy through the Mecklenburg County Medical Examiner’s Office’s have yet to be released. The family paid for an independent autopsy and the results led the pathologist to call Scott’s shooting a homicide. Scott was struck at least three times by bullets fired from police officer, according to the autopsy commissioned by his family. One bullet hit his left upper back, while the others struck his left lower abdomen and left wrist. Scott also suffered fractures in his ribs, vertebrae, left wrist and left radius. The independent autopsy states that the shots to the back and abdomen were the “mechanism of death.”
The second autopsy was performed at the request of Scott’s wife Rakeyia Scott nine days after he was killed. The official autopsy report from the Mecklenburg County Medical Examiner’s Office is expected to take several months to be released. Officer Brentley Vinson has been placed on paid administrative leave during the investigation. He has not been charged.
