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Breaking Down Keith Scott Investigation Findings, Reactions

CMPD officer Vinson (bottom left) speaks to police officers in September 2016 about the shooting of Keith Scott. CMPD decided no discipline was warranted in the shooting, which spawned protests uptown and in the University City area.
CMPD video
CMPD officer Vinson (bottom left) speaks to police officers about the shooting of Keith Scott.

 

CMPD officer Brentley Vinson will not be charged in the shooting death of Keith Scott.

"After a thorough review and given the totality of the circumstances and credible evidence, it is my opinion that officer Vinson acted lawfully," Mecklenburg County District Attorney Andrew Murrays said during a press conference Tuesday morning.

Murray laid out details of the case for nearly 40 minutes, building to that conclusion.  Shortly after, attorneys for the family of Keith Scott responded with their own press conference. Lawyer Justin Bamberg expressed understanding for the DA's conclusion:

"It does not mean that this officer's killing of Keith scott was right.  All that means is that under the view of the DA's office, it wasn't criminal. And those are two completely different things."

WFAE's David Boraks and Lisa Worf were at both of those press conferences and have read the DA's report. They joined Mark Rumsey during All Things Considered to discuss the findings and reactions. (Transcript forthcoming)

Transcript of Officer Brentley Vinson's interview with police:

Read the districtattorney's reportregarding the decision to not file charges.  

Mark Rumsey grew up in Kansas and got his first radio job at age 17 in the town of Abilene, where he announced easy-listening music played from vinyl record albums.
Lisa Worf traded the Midwest for Charlotte in 2006 to take a job at WFAE. She worked with public TV in Detroit and taught English in Austria before making her way to radio. Lisa graduated from University of Chicago with a bachelor’s degree in English.
David Boraks previously covered climate change and the environment for WFAE. See more at www.wfae.org/climate-news. He also has covered housing and homelessness, energy and the environment, transportation and business.