Enlarge / Protesters march in Charlotte, North Carolina in the aftermath of the shooting of Keith Lamont Scott by police days earlier and subsequent unrest in the city. The state’s governor had declared a state of emergency and summoned the national guard.
(credit: Nicholas Kamm/via Getty Images)

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department released dash and body cam footage Saturday of an officer killing a black man on Tuesday. The release of the footage by Chief Kerr Putney comes amid widespread calls for the footage to become public, and two days after the chief said he would not divulge it because he never said the investigation of Michael Lamont Scott’s death would involve “full transparency.”

The new footage seemingly confirms what the chief said Thursday, that it does not show “absolute, definitive visual evidence that could confirm that a person is pointing a gun.” Tuesday’s shooting has sparked violent protests, requiring the North Carolina governor to declare a state of emergency, and to call in the national guard.

Police shot the 43-year-old Smith outside an apartment complex while serving a warrant on somebody else. The authorities said the 194th black man killed by US police this year had a handgun and refused to drop it. In a two-minute video the dead man’s wife took with a mobile phone in the moments leading up to the shooting, an officer is overheard yelling, “Drop the gun.” Chief Putney told a news conference on Saturday that police saw marijuana, and a weapon in Scott’s car, and said, “uh oh, this is a safety issue for us and the public.”