Attorneys for the family of Keith Lamont Scott, who was shot and killed by police in Charlotte this week, have released a cellphone camera video taken by Scott’s wife Rakeyia of the moments immediately before and after the fatal shooting on Tuesday.
The video does not show the shooting itself, and it does not show whether Scott had a gun, as police have claimed. According to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney, three of the officers on the scene were wearing body cameras, but police have so far refused to release their footage of the shooting. An attorney representing the Scott family, Justin Bamberg, told the New York Times that Rakeyia Scott’s video offered “another vantage point” of the incident.
Police were present at the Scott’s apartment complex, The Village at College Downs, near the University of North Carolina at Charlotte to serve a warrant on someone else, NBC News reports. Officers said they saw Scott holding a handgun and was acting threatening towards them. A transcript of Rakeyia Scott’s footage follows:
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?
Charlotte has roiled with demonstrations all week, including on Tuesday when one protestor, 26-year-old Justin Carr, was shot and killed. Police announced the arrest of Rayquan Borum, 21, on Friday morning. Borum has been charged with murder. The officer who killed Scott has been placed on administrative leave.