Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney said Thursday that video footage of Tuesday's shooting of an African-American man does not definitely show him "actually holding and pointing a gun at an officer."
"The footage I have seen doesn't give me that vantage point," Putney told Wolf Blitzer on CNN. "I don't see what an officer at a different angle would see."
When asked whether the video showed the man, Keith Lamont Scott, 43, holding a gun, the chief said: "The angle in which he's standing I can't see his hands.
"Therefore, I can't see a weapon in his hands or him pointing a weapon that would be in his hands," Putney said. "I can't see, based on the angle, that definitive piece of visual evidence that I need."
However, a gun was recovered at the scene, the chief said.
"We have various statements that he had the weapon, that he wouldn't drop it, after repeated verbal commands," Putney said. "At the incident, there is a weapon recovered right there in close proximity to the subject."
Putney said Scott was fatally shot after he refused officers' repeated commands to drop a gun. He added Thursday, however, that the video did not definitely show Scott pointing a gun.
Residents say Scott was unarmed, holding only a book, and disabled by a brain injury.
Putney told Blitzer that he was not releasing any video — though he would let Scott's family view it — because "I have to do what I can to protect the integrity of the investigation.
"Also, I don't want to set a bad precedent that I am releasing lots of video — and you could be destroying some of the trust of some of our most vulnerable victims, especially those of domestic violence and sexual assault."
He also admitted that both police body-cam and car dash-cam video existed of the incident.
"We're looking at all footage that might be available," Putney told Blitzer. "We do have some additional body-worn camera footage but not specific to the incident itself, not showing anything that is relative to give us a better understanding of exactly what occurred."
He said that any footage to be released would have to be done by the State Bureau of Investigation, an independent North Carolina agency that began its inquiry on Thursday.
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