Chilling video recorded by Keith Scott's wife shows the moments before and after police killed him
While the police officer’s body camera footage of the altercation that led to Keith Lamont Scott‘s death has not been released by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, newly surfaced footage shot by Scott’s wife Rakeyia show the last moments of his life as she looked on in terror.
The footage was obtained by the New York Times and NBC News, who released it simultaneously on Friday afternoon.
Moments after Keith Scott was surrounded by police on Tuesday afternoon while waiting in his car for his son to get out of school, Rakeyia pulled out her phone and began to record what she feared might turn into a deadly encounter.
Two minutes after she’d begun capturing her video, and despite telling the police that her husband didn’t have a gun and that he’d recently suffered from a traumatic brain injury, Keith Scott was fatally shot as Rakeyia watched from a few feet away.
WARNING: This video is disturbing and graphic.
Scott’s footage of her husband’s death comes at a complicated time in the debate over just what, exactly prompted the police to open fire. According to Scott’s family, the 43-year-old father of seven was unarmed and only holding a book that he was reading in his car. Charlotte police claim that Scott was allegedly armed with a gun and posed a significant threat to the officers’ lives—though Charlotte police chief Kerr Putney has also said that video footage he has seen does not make it clear whether Scott was pointing a weapon at the officers.The video released Friday does not definitively show whether or not Keith Scott was carrying a weapon. Rakeyia Scott, though, is clearly certain that her husband is unarmed.
“He has no weapon,” she says to the police officers as they tell Keith Scott to “drop the gun.” “He has no weapon…He doesn’t have a gun. He has a T.B.I. [Traumatic Brain Injury].”
She pleads with the officers not to shoot her husband. “He is not going to do anything to you guys,” she says. “He just took his medicine.” Soon after, there is a loud volley of shots. The footage then shows Keith Scott’s lifeless body on the ground, with police officers surrounding him.
“He better not be fucking dead!” Rakeyia Scott yells.
Both the dash cam and body camera footage from the officers of the shooting are being withheld from the public. Scott’s family saw the police footage themselves for the first time yesterday and described it as “incredibly difficult” to watch. They urged it to be released to the world.
“When told by police to exit his vehicle, Mr. Scott did so in a very calm, nonaggressive manner,” Scott family lawyer Justin Bamberg said in a public statement. “While police did give him several commands, he did not aggressively approach them or raise his hands at members of law enforcement at any time.”
Scott’s killing has caused major tensions in Charlotte, along with days of unrest and protests from the local community, who feel as if justice is not being served. Rakeyia Scott’s video is unlikely to change that feeling.
Below, read the full transcript of the video, as compiled by the New York Times.
Transcript of the Keith Scott video
OFFICER: Hands up!
RAKEYIA SCOTT: Don’t shoot him. Don’t shoot him. He has no weapon. He has no weapon. Don’t shoot him.
OFFICER: Don’t shoot. Drop the gun. Drop the fucking gun.
RAKEYIA SCOTT: Don’t shoot him. Don’t shoot him.
OFFICER: Drop the gun.
RAKEYIA SCOTT: He didn’t do anything.
OFFICER: Drop the gun. Drop the gun.
RAKEYIA SCOTT: He doesn’t have a gun. He has a T.B.I. (Traumatic Brain Injury).
OFFICER: Drop the gun.
RAKEYIA SCOTT: He is not going to do anything to you guys.
RAKEYIA SCOTT: He just took his medicine.
OFFICER: Drop the gun. Let me get a fucking baton over here. [muffled]
RAKEYIA SCOTT: Keith, don’t let them break the windows. Come on out the car.
OFFICER: [muffled]
OFFICER:Drop the gun.
RAKEYIA SCOTT: Keith! Don’t you do it.
OFFICER: Drop the gun.
RAKEYIA SCOTT: Keith, get out the car. Keith! Keith! Don’t you do it! Don’t you do it! Keith!
OFFICER: Drop the gun.
RAKEYIA SCOTT:Keith! Keith! Keith! Don’t you do it! [SHOTS]
RAKEYIA SCOTT: Fuck. Did you shoot him? Did you shoot him? Did you shoot him? He better not be fucking dead.He better not be fucking dead. I know that fucking much. I know that much. He better not be dead. I’m not going to come near you. I’m going to record, though. I’m not coming near you. I’m going to record, though. He better be alive because …I come You better be alive. How about that? Yes, we here, over here at 50 … 50 …9453 Lexington Court. These are the police officers that shot my husband, and he better live. He better live. Because he didn’t do nothing to them.
OFFICER: Is everybody good? Are you good?
RAKEYIA SCOTT: He good. Nobody … touch nobody, so they’re all good.
OFFICER: You good?
RAKEYIA SCOTT: I know he better live. I know he better live. How about that I’m not coming to you guys, but he’d better live. He better live. You all hear it, you see this, right? He better live.
OFFICER: [muffled]
RAKEYIA SCOTT: He better live. I swear, he better live. Yep, he better live. He better fucking live. He better live. Where is…He better fucking live, and I can’t even leave the damn…I ain’t going nowhere. I’m staying in the same damn spot. What the fuck. That’s O.K. did you all call the police? I mean, did you all call an ambulance?
This story is developing.