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Court records: Keith Scott served 7-year prison sentence for assault

By Paul Boyd
By Paul Boyd

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Police said that Keith Scott did have a loaded gun when Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Officer Brentley Vinson shot and killed him last week, and on Monday, sources told Channel 9 that that gun was stolen.

SPECIAL SECTION: Keith Scott shooting

Police sources said someone else stole the gun during a home break-in and later sold it to Scott.

It’s not clear if police knew who they were confronting last week, or Scott’s history, or if that weighed into the decision to use deadly force.

But new documents do point to Scott’s extensive and violent past.

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Channel 9 obtained a domestic violence protective order that Scott's wife took out on him last year.

The order, filed in Gaston County, said that Scott hit his child in the head with his fist, kicked his wife and threatened to kill them with his gun.

It also claimed that Scott told his family that "he's a killer and they should know that."

It went on to say that Scott has a 9 mm handgun that he did not have a permit for it and that he is a convicted felon.

The order was dismissed a month later when Scott's wife said he was no longer a threat to the family.

In the order, Scott's wife wrote that he had been incarcerated, so Channel 9 tracked down those records to Bexar County, Texas.

Documents show he served seven years in prison for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and a one-year, three-month sentence for evading arrests. Records show that both incidents happened in 2002, but his sentence didn’t start until 2005.

But a year before the prison sentence started, Scott came back in 2004 to Mecklenburg County.

Channel 9 uncovered another domestic violence protective order filed by his wife Rakeyia Scott. It claimed her husband stabbed her in the back, almost puncturing her lungs.

Those who knew Scott said he was a gentleman and a devoted father. They said his life was forever changed last November when he suffered a traumatic brain injury in a motorcycle crash in Charleston, South Carolina.

SBI now investigating

The SBI is now taking over the investigation into the shooting.

Dash cam and body cam videos released on Saturday show Scott seemingly backing away from police with his hands at his side.

But firearms experts told Channel 9 that the gun Scott's accused of holding was cocked and ready to fire.

“One way to look at that is that he's backing away from the car,” said one expert. ”But he's getting into an area where he would have a clear shot at one or two of the other police officers.”

The SBI will decipher what police saw and believed in the moments before opening fire. They'll turn their findings over to the Mecklenburg County district attorney, who will decide whether to charge Officer Vinson.

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