A black man fatally shot by police in North Carolina was reading a book and waiting for his son to get off a school bus, his family claim.
The victim, named as 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott, died after being shot four times in a car park in the University City area of Charlotte on Tuesday.
Police were in the area on an unrelated matter, searching for a suspect with an outstanding warrant when the incident took place shortly before 4pm local time.
Police say they saw a man get out of his vehicle with a firearm.
“Officers observed the subject get back into the vehicle at which time they began to approach the subject.”The subject got back out of the vehicle armed with a firearm and posed an imminent deadly threat to the officers who subsequently fired their weapon striking the subject,” public affairs officer Keith Trietley said.Mr Lamont Scott was transported to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, where he was pronounced dead.
Terence Crutcher, left, with his father, Joey Crutcher
A man identified by WCNC-TV as the victim’s brother told the station that the officer involved in the shooting was undercover and not wearing a uniform.
“I think he shot him four times, I’m not sure but he’s dead,” the man told WCNC.
Police recovered the gun that the subject was holding at the time of the shooting and witnesses were being interviewed, Trietley said.
The officer who shot Scott was identified as Bradley Vinson, who has been on the force since July 2014.
Mr Scott’s daughter livestreamed the aftermath of the shooting on Facebook.
In emotional scenes, she claimed he is disabled, was unarmed, and was simply holding a book when shot.
The shooting has sparked tense scense with riot police called in deal with protesters in Charlotte.
“Demonstrators surrounded our officers who were attempting to leave the scene,” the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said on Twitter, adding that a “civil emergency unit” had been deployed to safely remove them.
The fatal shooting came amid an intense ongoing national debate over the use of deadly force by police, especially against young black men.