Private autopsy shows Keith Scott was shot 4 times by US police

A private autopsy shows that an African American man killed by police in Charlotte, North Carolina last month died of gunshot wounds in the back and abdomen.

The independent autopsy was conducted at the request of Keith Lamont Scott’s family after the Mecklenburg County Medical Examiner’s Office in Charlotte refused to release the result of their own forensic examination.

Attorneys representing Scott’s wife released the results of the autopsy on Wednesday. It was conducted by Newberry Pathology Associates in South Carolina.

The autopsy described Scott’s death as a homicide and listed “two, penetrating, indeterminate range gunshot wounds to the back and abdomen” as the “mechanism of death.”

“Scott suffered from three gunshot wounds to his left upper back, left lower abdomen and left wrist,” according to the autopsy report. He also suffered “fractures in his ribs, vertebrae, left wrist carpal bones and left radius,” the report states.

Scott was killed on September 20 by a Charlotte police officer, sparking days of violent protests. The officer responsible for the killing is on paid administrative leave while an investigation into the killing drags on.

His shooting death happened at a time when anti-police sentiment is already high across the US due to a surge of unjustified killings of unarmed African Americans over the past few years.

One of the attorneys representing Scott’s wife said his client “was forced” to request the independent autopsy because the medical examiner’s office “refused to release even the most basic information.”

“The Scott family authorized this release of information because, as they have maintained from the very beginning, they are simply seeking transparency,” Monnett said.