Peaceful protesters react to police shooting video

(16 Apr 2019) Police video released Monday shows an officer in Charlotte, North Carolina, fatally shooting a man who was armed but didn't point his weapon at authorities. Hours later, the community gathered to protest the officer's actions. "I was appalled by the video. I feel that there should be another way to disarm without taking life. Personally, I was not able to see a weapon," Glencie Rhedrick, a local pastor with the Charlotte Clergy Coalition for Justice, told the Associated Press. The body camera footage shows two officers approaching 27-year-old Danquirs Napoleon Franklin outside a Burger King on March 25 after witnesses called 911 to report a man with a gun acting in a threatening manner. The police video shows officers repeatedly yelling for Franklin, who is black, to put his gun down. He's seen squatting by the open door of a car, facing someone in the passenger seat. Franklin doesn't move as police approach him, the video shows. As they shout at him, Franklin can be seen raising his right hand with an object in it, still facing the person in the passenger seat. He lowers his hand right around the time when the first of two shots by the officer can be heard on the video. "Shots fired!" the officer yells into her radio. About 40 seconds had passed from the time the officer exited her cruiser to when Franklin was shot. Monday evening's demonstration was peaceful, despite concerns protests would mirror the unrest seen in Charlotte in 2016 after the police shooting death of Keith Lamont Scott. "I feel ask though the city has hurt so much that there couldn't be any rioting and all that because they're in so much pain, they don't know how to react. Like, what do I do from here? The last time I reacted and tore the city up, they didn't do nothing. So, people just feel so defeated at a point to where they don't have no hope," Boyd said. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...