Twelve police officers were injured in protests which erupted Tuesday night in the US city of Charlotte, North Carolina, after police fatally shot an African-American man, local media reported. Hundreds of people gathered shortly afterwards in the neighborhood where the victim, identified as Keith Lamont Scott, 43, was killed. 

Police had been searching a neighborhood for a suspect with an outstanding warrant when Scott emerged from a car holding gun, the Charlotte Observer reported, citing a police statement. When approached by police, Scott got back into his car, before emerging again with a firearm, the statement said.  "Scott posed an imminent deadly threat to the officers, who subsequently fired their weapon striking the subject," police said.  Scott was taken to hospital where he died. 

In a video purportedly made by the victim's daughter, a woman says that Scott was not armed and that he was simply reading a book in his car while waiting to pick up his children.

Protests have been held in several parts of the US in response to perceived excessive use of force against African-Americans. On Monday a video was released showing a police woman in Ohio shooting an unarmed African-American man.  Last week a police officer in the city of Columbus shot dead a 13-year-old boy who was allegedly in possession of a pellet gun which closely resembled a police pistol.

Source : QNA