Keith Lamont Scott was a family man. The 43-year-old security guard had been happily married for 20 years and had seven children. He cheered his sons at football, helped them detail cars, and participated in dance-off videos with his daughters. He himself had a troubled youth, tussling with the cops in South Carolina and Texas, but straightened his life out to marry the love of his life, Rakeyia, and devoted himself to her and their kids. A traumatic motorcycle accident in 2015 slowed him down – he was confused a little more often, he often walked with a cane, and his baritone drawl now stuttered – but he remained focused on his children, spending his afternoons reading in his SUV waiting to greet them when they emerged from the school bus.
Keith Lamar Scott was murdered by police on September 20, 2016, for waiting in that SUV. Two cops, there to serve a warrant in an unrelated case, saw Keith park his SUV in the shade near them. Claiming they witnessed him holding a blunt and a gun, they drew their guns on him and repeatedly shouted for him to “Drop the gun.” Hearing the commotion from their apartment, Rakeyia ran out, telling the cops he that didn’t have a weapon; that he had just taken his medicine for his brain injury; that he wouldn’t hurt them; and – repeatedly – “Don’t you shoot him.” Upon seeing his wife, Keith exited his SUV, turned around, and slowly walked backwards towards the cops perched behind their vehicle two stalls away. They shot him four times as he walked. The cops were never charged with any crime.
Black lives matter.
