Charlotte police have released footage of the shooting death of Keith Lamont Scott during his encounter with officers in North Carolina.

Police claim that two plainclothes officers were preparing to arrest someone else when they saw Scott sitting in an SUV, rolling a marijuana joint.

Officers say they weren’t concerned about the drugs until they noticed Scott had a gun.

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After an officer “observed Mr Scott hold a gun up,” police put on marked vests to identify themselves as officers, police added.

The officers say they identified themselves as police and gave Scott orders to drop the gun, which he refused.

A uniformed officer tried to use a baton to break a window on Scott’s SUV, a police statement says.

Police allege the man got out of the SUV, with the gun, and backed away while ignoring the demands to drop it.

Perceiving Scott’s actions as an “imminent physical threat,” Officer Brentley Vinson fired his weapon at Scott, according to the statement.

Both Vinson and Scott are black.

The report also says forensic examination shows Scott’s DNA and fingerprints on the loaded gun retrieved from the scene and that Scott was wearing an ankle holster.

The dramatic video footage released shows officers surrounding Scott with his hands at his side before shots are fired and he buckles to the ground.

Scott walks backward before shots are fired

Scott can be seen in police dashboard camera video backing away from his SUV with his hands down, and it’s unclear if there’s anything in his hands. Four shots are heard, and he falls to the ground.

The footage was released on Saturday after several days of demonstrations that have coalesced around demands that the public see the video.

Videos from the dashboard camera and the body camera also show the sequence of events leading up to the shooting.

The dashboard camera footage starts with two officers pointing their guns at Scott, who is inside the SUV with the doors closed and windows rolled up.

Scott gets out and starts walking backward before shots are fired.

From a different angle, police body camera footage shows an officer approach with his gun drawn and another officer already pointing his gun at Scott.

When Scott comes into view, he has his hands at his side and is standing outside his SUV.

The body camera footage doesn’t show the moment the shots are fired, and Scott next comes into view already on the ground.

Police also released photos showing what they say showed a handgun and marijuana that were in Scott’s possession.

Before releasing the footage, Chief Kerr Putney said at a news conference that he received assurances from the State Bureau of Investigation that letting the public see the video would not impact their independent probe of the shooting.

Charlotte is the latest U.S. city to be shaken by protests and recriminations over the death of a black man at the hands of police, a list that includes Baltimore, Milwaukee, Chicago, New York and Ferguson, Missouri.

Earlier in the week, the Charlotte protests turned violent, with demonstrators attacking reporters and others, setting fires and smashing windows of hotels, office buildings and restaurants.

Forty-four people were arrested after Wednesday’s protests, and one protester who was shot died at a hospital Thursday.

City officials said police did not shoot 26-year-old Justin Carr. A suspect was arrested, but police provided few details.

On Thursday, protests were largely peaceful after National Guard members came to the city to help keep order and the mayor imposed a curfew.

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Scott’s wife Rakeyia yesterday released her own video, shot on her phone, of the incident.

The two-minute, 16-second clip does not show the shooting itself, but captures the moments leading up to it, as she pleads with officers not to open fire.

“Don’t shoot him. Don’t shoot him, he has no weapon. He has no weapon. Don’t shoot him,” she is heard saying as the footage begins.

Neighbours claim Mr Scott was disabled

“He has a TBI, he’s not going to do anything to you guys,” she says, referring to a traumatic brain injury.

Several neighbours have told AFP Mr Scott, 43, was disabled, and had a stutter among other issues.

As Mr Scott’s wife records, police are heard yelling: “Drop the gun! Drop the gun!”

“Don’t let them break the windows. Come on out the car,” she asks her husband.

“Keith. Don’t do it. Keith get out the car,” she says.

“Keith. Don’t you do it,” she adds, a moment before the sound of four quick gunshots, at which point the phone is pointed away from the shooting.

Moments later, Mr Scott is seen lying face down on the asphalt surrounded by officers.

“Did you shoot him? Did you shoot him?” Ms Scott screams.

Mr Scott at this point is seen lying motionless on the ground.

“I’m not coming near you, I’m going to record you,” his wife says.

“These are the police officers that shot my husband, and he better live. He better live, because he didn’t do nothing to them.”

No gun is visible in the video, which shows Mr Scott stepping backward when he was shot, one of the family lawyers said.

“His hands are down by his side. He is acting calm,” Justin Bamberg said.

“You do see something in his hand, but it’s impossible to make out from the video what it is.”

With AAP