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NATION
Another set of
blue-on-black
shootings
The deaThs of Terence
Crutcher in Tulsa, Okla., and Keith
Lamont Scott in Charlotte, N.C.,
were separated by one thousand
miles, four days and a constella-
tion of debated facts. But both men
were African-American, and shot
dead by police, and so their deaths
reverberated loudly; in Charlotte,
they sparked street disturbances
that edged toward riot.
Crutcher’s death, on Sept. 16,
was recorded from numerous an-
gles—dash cam, police helicopter.
None showed the threat that Offi-
cer Betty Shelby said caused her to
fire her pistol, just as a second offi-
cer fired a Taser. Crutcher, 40, had
put both hands high in the air as he
walked toward his SUV stopped in
the middle of a two-lane highway.
Shelby said he had been behaving
erratically and she feared, as one
hand came down beside the driv-
er’s side door, that he was about to
reach into the vehicle for a gun. No
weapon was found.
In Charlotte, Scott, 43, was also
shot beside his parked car. Police
said he climbed out of it with a gun
after they approached him while
searching for someone else on
Sept. 20. His family insisted Scott
held only a book, and his daugh-
ter posted a lengthy Facebook Live
video from the scene, during which
she addressed police officers with
both anger and grief. After the night
of unrest, Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Police Chief Kerr Putney said only
that a gun was recovered.
“It’s time to change the narrative,
because I can tell you from the facts
that the story is a little bit different
as to how it’s been portrayed so far,”
Putney said, “especially through so-
cial media.”—Karl VicK