In Charlotte, protests and call for a boycott after a police shooting

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• GWEN IFILL:

  It's an all-too- familiar story, in a new setting. This time, the city of Charlotte is on edge, awaiting a second night of protests over the police killing of a black man.

  The drama began with a Tuesday confrontation that sparked a night of trouble.

  William Brangham begins our coverage.

• WILLIAM BRANGHAM:

  Within hours of the fatal shooting, protests boiled over in North Carolina's largest city. The victim was 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott.

  And his sister, who didn't give her name, said he was unarmed.

• WOMAN:

  They said, hands up, he got a gun, he got a gun. Pow, pow, pow, pow. That's it. He had no gun.

• WILLIAM BRANGHAM:

  Another woman, claiming to be Scott's daughter, went on Facebook, saying he'd had a book, not a gun, and also had an unspecified disability.

  In short order, a crowd blocked traffic on Interstate 85, throwing rocks, and destroying police cars. Some looted a tractor-trailer and set it on fire. Others broke into a nearby Wal-Mart. Police eventually used tear gas to quell the violence, but 16 officers were injured.

  This morning, police chief Kerr Putney urged people to step back and be calm.

• KERR PUTNEY, Charlotte Police Chief:

  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, especially through social media.

• WILLIAM BRANGHAM:

  As Putney told it, officers had been at an apartment complex, searching for a suspect, when they saw Scott get out of a car. They say he did have a gun, and refused to put it down.

• KERR PUTNEY:

  In spite of the verbal commands, Mr. Scott, as I said, exited his vehicle armed with a handgun, as the officers continued to yell at him to drop it. He stepped out, posing a threat to the officers, and officer Brentley Vinson subsequently fired his weapon, striking the subject.

• WILLIAM BRANGHAM:

  The officer, who is also black, was placed on administrative leave, which is standard procedure in such cases.

  Meanwhile, local activists and ministers called for an economic boycott of Charlotte.

• JOHN BARNETT, Civil Rights Activist:

  Across the country, we are being shot down, shot down. Very few cops go to jail for that.

• WILLIAM BRANGHAM:

  And by late this afternoon, protests were starting up again. This incident came just a day after graphic video from Tulsa, Oklahoma, that showed an officer shooting an unarmed black man.

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