Protest against police in US after killing of black man

Several officers were wounded in the US while trying to disperse a crowd protesting against the police in North Carolina after it fatally shot a black man, authorities said.

A large crowd of protesters gathered on Tuesday evening in the city of Charlotte, North Carolina, where an African-American man, identified as Keith Lamont Scott, was killed by a police officer earlier that day, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) said on its twitter account that "agitators" destroyed marked police cars during the demonstration.

According to CNN, a police official on Tuesday afternoon killed a black man as he allegedly "exited his car with a gun" posing an imminent deadly threat, while the police were looking for a suspect with an outstanding warrant.

The man, who was taken to the Carolinas Medical Centre, was pronounced dead.

Scott's family denied the police allegations, saying that he was disabled and unarmed as he was reading a book inside his car while waiting to pick up a child from a school bus.

Some protesters chanted "Black lives matter", and "Hands up, don't shoot!" One of them held up a sign saying "Stop Killing Us".

The protest turned violent when demonstrators threw glass bottles and garbage at the police who used tear gas to disperse them.

Brentley Vinson, the officer who killed Scott, has been placed on paid administrative leave as a standard procedure pending an investigation of the shooting. Vinson is also an African-American.

--IANS

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