The shooting death of Keith Lamont Scott, a disabled black man who was reportedly reading a book when he was shot by a black police officer in Charlotte, N.C., sparked protests Tuesday that continued late into the night, the Washington Post reports.
According to the report, the large demonstration began peacefully, with some people chanting "Black lives matter" and "Hands up. Don't shoot." However, it was not too long before news reports and social media posts began showing police in riot gear deploying tear gas at protesters and firing rubber bullets. Some civilians were reportedly seen smashing out the windows of police cars.
By early Wednesday morning, protesters had shut down traffic on Interstate 85, the Post reports. Some civilians were seen on camera taking items out of the backs of tractor trailers and setting them on fire in the middle of the highway, WSOC-TV reported.
Police report that 12 officers were injured during the protests, with one of them being hit in the face with a rock. At least seven people were transported from the scene of the protests and treated for non-life-threatening injuries, the Charlotte Observer tweeted.
Scott, 43, was killed by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer Brentley Vinson Tuesday afternoon while officers from the department were seeking a suspect with an outstanding warrant.
Scott was sitting in a vehicle in an apartment complex's parking lot, and police say that he got out of the car holding a "firearm" before going back inside the vehicle. According to police, officers approached, and Scott once again exited the vehicle with the firearm and "posed an imminent deadly threat to the officers who subsequently fired their weapon striking the subject,” police say.
Scott was pronounced dead at the Carolinas Medical Center. Authorities say that detectives recovered the firearm police say Scott was holding during the shooting. However, a young woman identifying herself as Scott's daughter insisted that her father was unarmed and merely reading a book in his vehicle when he was fatally shot.