A Charlotte man who was fatally wounded by police last week was carrying a stolen gun when he was killed, officials say.
The gun was reported stolen after a breaking and entering. The Boston Herald reports the suspect told agents at the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that he had sold the gun to Scott.
He is now in custody.
SBI Agent Erik Hooks declined to comment when asked by the Herald whether the gun was stolen.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney said that Scott held a gun and didn’t obey police orders to drop it.
But Scott’s family has insisted he didn’t have a weapon.
On Tuesday, investigators revealed that crucial evidence in the 43-year-old man’s death was not available because one of the officers failed to activate his body camera as soon as he responded to the incident. The move is in violation of department policy.
On Saturday, Charlotte police released two videos after four days of sometimes violent protests in the city over the death of Scott, who police say had a gun. His family contends that he was unarmed.
Neither video is conclusive on that question.
The department’s body camera policy states that officers must fully activate their cameras “prior to or in anticipation of” interactions with civilians resulting from traffic stops, suspicious vehicle/persons investigations, arrests, use of force incidents and/or voluntary investigative conduct (which is defined as “the mere suspicion of some type of criminal activity by a person”).
“We’ve been saying from the beginning that our goal is to find out what happened and exactly why Mr. Scott lost his life,” Justin Bamberg, an attorney for Scott’s family said in an interview Sunday. “It’s evident from the body camera footage that was released, based on how these cameras operate, that the officer did not hit the button to begin recording until after Mr. Scott had already been shot.”
