DHAKA: Government of city of Charlotte in US state North Carolina has declared state of emergency as continued unrest following police shooting down an unarmed black man.

Protests erupted after a black police man shot dead keith Lamont Scott on Tuesday (September 20).

One protester is in a critical condition after a ‘civilian on civilian’ shooting, BBC reported.

Scott is the third black man who ahs been shot dead by lawmen this week.

Riot police in Charlotte used tear gas as they faced hundreds of protesters. The local police department said four officers were injured.

Earlier North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory said he had "initiated efforts" to deploy the National Guard and highway patrol to help deal with the protests.

"Any violence directed toward our citizens or police officers or destruction of property should not be tolerated," he said.

Police were serving an arrest warrant on another person when they say they saw Scott get out of a car with a handgun and repeatedly told to drop it. However, his family claimed he was reading a book and went to drop his son off at school.

Police, however, claimed no book as found on the scene, Dash-cam footage of the incident will be viewed by Charlotte’s mayor but not released to the public “at that time”, the city authority said.

It is legal to openly carry a handgun in North Carolina.

“We have been a model of community policing. We have actually trained other police forces. This is not who we are as Charlotteans and I am hoping we can move past these protests very quickly, move into more peaceful protests and back into dialogue.”

The Mayor of Charlotte, Jennifer Roberts said after 16 policemen have been injured tackling the protesters.

BDST: 1600 HRS, SEP 22, 2016
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