CHARLOTTE, N.C.—Workers swept up glass and police officers
patrolled the misty downtown streets Thursday morning, as they
sought to restore order after officials said riots Wednesday night
left one protester on life support.
The looting and vandalism marked a second night of mayhem in
North Carolina's largest city.
Violence first erupted Tuesday night after a black police
officer fatally shot a black man, Keith Lamont Scott, in the
parking lot of an apartment complex. Police officers on Wednesday
morning repeated their account that Mr. Scott was armed with a gun
and ignored their commands to drop his weapon.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney said he didn't
plan to release to the public police video footage of Tuesday's
shooting. But he said he was going to provide the video to Mr.
Scott's family, who said on social media that police accosted Mr.
Scott while he was reading a book in his car, unarmed.
The police footage "does not give me absolute, definitive,
visual evidence that would confirm that a person was pointing a
gun," Chief Putney said. He added other evidence supports the
police version of events, that Mr. Scott had a weapon and pointed
it at police.
Chief Putney, speaking at a Thursday morning news conference,
said 44 people were arrested on charges including failure to
disperse, assault and breaking and entering. He said police were
reviewing video, social media and other evidence and could make
more arrests. He said police fired tear gas to disperse crowds and
resources were strained by the protests.
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory late Wednesday declared a state
of emergency at the city's request, authorizing National Guard and
state troopers to help Charlotte police.
Chief Putney said Thursday that "several hundred" additional
personnel were arriving to help make sure the city could handle any
trouble Thursday night.
"We are going to be a lot more proactive," he said.
Around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, a civilian was shot and was rushed
to the hospital with "life-threatening injuries," he said.
Initially, police tweeted that police weren't involved in the
shooting. But Thursday morning Chief Putney said investigators were
looking into what exactly happened.
Mayor Jennifer Roberts urged citizens Thursday to remain calm
and said the city was "open for business as usual."
But downtown Charlotte on Thursday was far from normal.
Bank of America Corp. and other major employers encouraged
thousands of employees to stay home Thursday, so the downtown
sidewalks were relatively quiet.
Wells Fargo & Co. told all of its approximately 12,000
workers at offices in Charlotte's Uptown neighborhood that they
didn't have to come to work Thursday, according to spokesman Josh
Dunn. Employees were asked to work from home or alternative
locations if they could, he said.
Duke Energy Corp. also told its 5,500 employees and contractors
who work in the downtown Charlotte headquarters to work from home,
said spokesman Tom Williams. The company, which owns or leases
about 2 million square feet downtown, has also made "other
arrangements to make sure operations safely continue," he said,
though he wouldn't elaborate. The company operates five utilities
in six states.
Traci Anderson said she watched Wednesday night's melee from her
room at the Omni Hotel, after what started as a peaceful march from
a public park vigil erupted in violence when some protesters faced
off against Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers in riot gear. She
saw the clouds of tear gas on the sidewalk below her window, heard
the pop of what sounded like gunfire and watched people surround
the injured protester a little after 8 p.m.
"It was crazy because everything's so normal and then all of a
sudden, there's helicopters outside," she said. "It was
surreal."
Looters broke windows at the Charlotte Hornets fan shop at the
Time Warner Arena, hotels and other businesses, such as the Hyatt
Place and United Way of Central Carolinas.
Many of the people milling around downtown were on work travel
from other cities, such as Ms. Anderson, of Portland, Ore. She said
local co-workers at her company tried to assure her that life in
Charlotte wasn't normally like this, but she said she worried that
what happened in Charlotte could happen anywhere. Ms. Anderson, who
is white, has an adopted 4-year-old son who is black, and she said
she and her husband are struggling to explain race in America to
him.
"He's so little, but we're already talking to him, 'You need to
listen to police, you need to be friends with police,' " she
said.
Damian Johnson, co-owner of the No Grease barbershop downtown,
said he was disappointed that the looting occurred, but not
surprised. There has been anger in Charlotte brewing after the
nation's long violent summer, and ever since a mistrial was
declared last year in the fatal shooting of Jonathan Ferrell, a
black man shot by a white Charlotte police officer. "There's going
to be a breaking point, and that was our sign of the breaking
point," he said.
Write to Valerie Bauerlein at valerie.bauerlein@wsj.com and
Cameron McWhirter at cameron.mcwhirter@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 22, 2016 14:05 ET (18:05 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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