Charlotte DEADLY protests: Police injured after black man shot

Twelve police officers have been injured during protests sparked by the police shooting of a black man in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Demonstrators destroyed police cars that were marked where the shooting happened, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department tweeted.

One policeman was hit in the face with a stone, it said.

Previously on Tuesday, Keith Lamont Scott, 43, was shot by a black policeman and died in hospital.

Cops say he was carrying a gun and introduced “imminent mortal danger”, but relatives told local media he wasn’t holding a weapon but a novel.

Protesters outraged over the event blocked streets and police used tear gas, local media reported.

The unrest came a day after police in the town of Tulsa, in Oklahoma, said a black man they’d killed on Friday was unarmed.

Countless people have been protesting outside police headquarters there.

In Charlotte, officers have been searching for another defendant at a block of flats when Mr Scott was killed, police spokesman Keith Trietley said.

They saw Mr Scott get out of a car before getting back in carrying a firearm, he said. Mr Scott got out of the car with the gun again when the officers approached and authorities opened fire after deeming him a threat.

He wasn’t the suspect authorities were initially looking for, Mr Trietley validated.

The officer who shot Mr Scott, Brentley Vinson, is placed on administrative leave as part of authorities protocol.

A girl claiming to be the daughter of Mr Scott has fought the police department’s report in a Facebook video, the Charlotte Observer reports.

She said he was disabled. The claims have not been responded to by police but say they recovered a firearm at the scene.