After news broke that 43-year old Keith Lamont Scott was killed at the hands of law enforcement in Charlotte, North Carolina, protests erupted on Tuesday and remain in the national spotlight.
The ongoing standoff between police officers and citizens demonstrating against racist police brutality has already taken the life of one protester. Twenty-six-year-old Justin Carr was shot at the protest on Wednesday night and was confirmed dead on Thursday, according to WCNC. Two other citizens were also hospitalized during the protests. On Thursday evening, the city of Charlotte announced it would implement a a curfew starting midnight on Friday, keeping citizens indoors from midnight until 6 a.m.
With video surfacing of the moments leading up to Scott's death, protests are expected to continue into the weekend. Here are 15 on-the-ground photos of this historic moment in protest and national racial discourse:
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch acknowledged the Charlotte demonstrations at a press conference Thursday, saying that they've put America's racial tensions back in the spotlight.
“And the events in Charlotte and in Tulsa, Oklahoma, earlier this week once again have underscored the divisions that persist between law enforcement officers and the communities that we serve, particularly communities of color," Lynch said, according to the Charlotte Observer.
She concluded that while she condemns violence, she supports citizens exercising their constitutional right to protest: "And those who are exercising the most fundamental of freedoms we hear your voices and we feel your pain."
