Wife of man killed by Charlotte police describes shooting

CHARLOTTE -- Rakeyia Scott, the woman heard in a dramatic video trying to stop the killing of her husband by Charlotte police, sat down with CBS News Wednesday for her first interview. 

Keith Scott’s death last month ignited days of protests.

The incident began when officers came to the Scott’s apartment complex to arrest another man. They said they just happened to notice Scott sitting in his car with a gun.

Scott had recently been severely injured in a motorcycle crash and the medications he was taking may have played a role.

On Wednesday, his wife described what she saw to Gayle King of “CBS This Morning” in an exclusive interview.  

During the video, Rakeyia Scott can be heard saying: “Keith don’t do it...” 

“We hear you come to the scene, and you’re clearly very upset, and you’re saying, ‘Keith, don’t do it. Keith, don’t do it.’ What do you mean? What are you telling him not to do?” King asked her. 

“I’m not talking to Keith. I’m calling Keith’s name for him to hear me. I’m talking to the officers that I actually see changing their stands, their positions,” Rakeyia Scott said. “And it’s going in slow motion, but I see everything at one time.”  

“I heard you say, he has TBI, traumatic brain injury. He’s just taken his medication. What kind of medication is it? What does the medication do? What was the point you were making about that?” King asked.

“He takes almost 11 different medications since his accident on November the 2nd of last year. You have to give it time to kick in. If not, he’s not, if you start a conversation with him, he’s not going to remember the conversation once the medicine has kicked in,” Rakeyia Scott said. “He’ll come back and say, ‘What was you sayin’ to me earlier about,’ or he just -- he doesn’t talk. We as a family know first thing in the mornings, we don’t bother him until he takes his medicine.”

Rakeyia Scott told King that her husband did not have a gun.

“So when you see the video, and there’s a gun lying beside your husband, where do you think that gun came from?” King asked. 

“I know that he didn’t have it. I didn’t see a gun. Where that gun came from, I do not know,” Rakeyia Scott responded. “He was not a threat. You saw him backing up, why didn’t you just give him a command then? Why didn’t you give him a command then?”

“And all we want is to know why? Just why. Why did you have to take Keith that day. Why did you have to take him from us that day? Give us a reason, ‘cause everything that you’re saying right now, it just makes me angrier each day, because I just keep hearing more stuff. Give us your reason. The real, valid reason as to why my husband was -- my husband’s life was taken that day before me,” Rakeyia Scott continued. 

An autopsy commissioned by the family shows Scott was on his medications.

In the police videos, it’s impossible to see whether he was holding a gun.

But you hear the officers yelling “drop the gun.”

Charlotte police said they recovered a pistol and claim Scott was wearing an ankle holster. The investigation continues.  

King has more of that exclusive interview with Rakeyia Scott Thursday on “CBS This Morning.”