The North Carolina police officer who fatally shot a black man at a Charlotte apartment complex in September – sparking violent protests across that city – will not face criminal charges, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Officer Brentley Vinson, who is also black, was cleared in the Sept. 20 shooting death of 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott because the shooting was deemed justified, according to Charlotte-Mecklenburg District Attorney Andrew Murray.

Murray said the officer acted in self-defense with his use of deadly force in the fatal shooting that set off days of unrest in North Carolina’s largest city.

“It is my opinion that Officer Vinson acted lawfully when he shot Mr. Scott,” Murray said, speaking at a lengthy news conference Wednesday. “He acted lawfully.”

Murray said that though Scott’s family and residents have maintained that Scott, a father of seven, was unarmed at the time of the shooting at a complex in Charlotte’s University City neighborhood, he did have a .380 semiautomatic handgun with one live round in the chamber and the safety was off.

The gun bore Scott’s DNA on the grip and ammunition slide, Murray said.

“All of the credible and available evidence suggests that he was armed,” Murray said of Scott, adding that he ran the evidence past 15 experienced prosecutors who came to the unanimous decision that there was not enough evidence to charge Vinson, 26.

At the news conference, Murray displayed a nearby store’s surveillance video showing what appeared to be a holstered gun on Scott’s ankle.

The 4 p.m. shooting occurred after plainclothes officers noticed him in an SUV with a marijuana cigarette and believed they saw a gun on him while they were serving a warrant in an unrelated case.

Murray said that evidence showed that Scott exited the vehicle with a gun on him and ignored at least 10 commands by officers to drop the weapon.

“Mr. Scott did not comply with those commands,” Murray said.

Scott’s wife – Rakeyia Scott – has said that footage on her cell phone shows she was trying to tell cops at the time that her husband suffered from a brain impairment.

She can be heard on the frantic video that captured Scotts final moments shouting to officers that her husband is not armed and that he has “a TBI,” a traumatic brain injury.

Scott was pronounced dead at Carolinas Medical Center. An autopsy report from Mecklenburg County authorities says Scott died of gunshot wounds to the back and abdomen.

Police body camera footage and dashcam footage released earlier by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department did not show Scott holding a gun.

A lawyer for Scott’s family, Justin Bamberg, said Wednesday following the announcement that, “Today is a bittersweet day. We’ve been saying from the very beginning that we wanted to know the facts, we wanted certain questions answered and we did get some of those answers today.”

He added, “We’re going to continue to look into this matter.”

Another lawyer for the family, Charles Monnet, said, “There are still significant issues that needs to be addressed in terms of community-police relations in Charlotte.”

The Scott family lawyers pleaded for protestors upset with the decision to protest “peacefully.”

The shooting led to two nights of rioting and the National Guard being deployed in the city as North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency. Largely peaceful protests followed.

The city of Charlotte released a statement after the announcement saying: “We recognize that for some members of our community, this news will be met with different reactions. No matter where you stand on the issue, the events surrounding the Scott shooting have forever changed our community, and we intend to learn from and build a stronger Charlotte because of it.

“The city is committed to continuing its work with the community to preserve safety, trust and accountability,” the statement read, according to the Charlotte Observer.

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