In a Sunday appearance on CNN, retired Los Angeles Police Department Sergeant Cheryl Dorsey said that there are serious holes in Charlotte Police Chief Kerr Putney's explanation as to why officers shot Keith Lamont Scott last Tuesday.
Appearing alongside CNN legal analyst and former police officer Philip Holloway, Dorsey said that the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department's decision to only release a portion of the dashboard and body camera footage of Scott's death is "problematic."
"The video is not conclusive with regard to what the officers' statements are," Dorsey said. She said that she did not observe any "furtive movements" on Scott's part, nor any evidence of criminal activity serious enough to warrant the officers leaving their previous post, donning police vests and moving in for an arrest.
"This thing could have been handled so differently," she said, explaining that the officers who left their surveillance position should have radioed for a squad car and maintained their position and cover.
Anchor Fredricka Whitfield asked Dorsey about claims made by the police that Scott was rolling a marijuana blunt and "possibly brandishing a weapon."
The Supreme Court, Dorsey said, "has told us that a black man does not have any right that a white man must respect. So, the fact that they say he's brandishing a weapon in an open carry state and the fact that the officers are now saying that they observed him roll a joint is problematic for me."
She went on, "I don't smoke marijuana and I don't roll joints, but I do know that all that activity happens in your lap. So I'm not sure how these officers were able from their position seated in their car to see Mr. Scott rolling a joint and then conclude that's criminal activity occurring that's so egregious and outrageous that they need to leave their post and deal with that."
"It doesn't jibe, Fredricka," she concluded.
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