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Hearing Gets Underway In Police Fatal Shooting Of Keith Lamont Scott

Gwendolyn Glenn
/
WFAE News
Charlotte Citizens Review Board with two protesters in the background, just before the meeting went into closed session

The Charlotte Citizens Review Board is now holding a hearing on last year's fatal police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott. 

WFAE's Gwendolyn Glenn was at the Government Center in uptown, where the board is meeting and talks with Tom Bullock.

Tom Bullock: Gwen, what was the scene down at the Government Center? 

Gwendolyn Glenn: The media was out in full force, a couple of people were in the hallway and inside the hearing room two people held signs that read: Justice for Keith Lamont Scott and Police Accountability Now. One board member was absent. The attorneys for the Scott family and CMPD, CMPD internal affairs people and a CMPD training officer were also there.

TB-Remind people why this hearing is taking place.

GG-Last September police said they saw Scott sitting in his vehicle at a University City apartment complex, with marijuana and a gun. Police said Scott had the gun in his hand when he got out of his vehicle. He was shot by Officer Brentley Vinson in front of Scott’s wife who recorded the incident. Days of protests followed and in June, the review board found that substantial evidence existed that mistakes were made, warranting the fact-find hearing.

TB– CMPD Officer Brentley Vinson was cleared by both the CMPD and the district attorney. What can the board do in this case?

GG-They can find that CMPD erred in exonerating Vinson and recommend that he be reprimanded. The chief can go along with their recommendation or not. The city manager would have the final decision to take action or not.

TB-As you've reported state law mandates these proceedings are closed to the public because at its heart this is a CMPD personnel issue. But what can you tell us about what's happening there?

Not much. After introducing everybody, a motion was passed to go into closed session, but not before the clerk made sure all confidentiality forms from all involved were signed and in place.

Gwendolyn is an award-winning journalist who has covered a broad range of stories on the local and national levels. Her experience includes producing on-air reports for National Public Radio and she worked full-time as a producer for NPR’s All Things Considered news program for five years. She worked for several years as an on-air contract reporter for CNN in Atlanta and worked in print as a reporter for the Baltimore Sun Media Group, The Washington Post and covered Congress and various federal agencies for the Daily Environment Report and Real Estate Finance Today. Glenn has won awards for her reports from the Maryland-DC-Delaware Press Association, SNA and the first-place radio award from the National Association of Black Journalists.