BAC Bank of America Corporation

CHARLOTTE, N.C.—Workers swept up glass and police officers patrolled the misty downtown streets Thursday morning, as they sought to restore order after officials said riots Wednesday night left one protester on life support.

The looting and vandalism marked a second night of mayhem in North Carolina's largest city.

Violence first erupted Tuesday night after a black police officer fatally shot a black man, Keith Lamont Scott, in the parking lot of an apartment complex. Police officers on Wednesday morning repeated their account that Mr. Scott was armed with a gun and ignored their commands to drop his weapon.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney said he didn't plan to release to the public police video footage of Tuesday's shooting. But he said he was going to provide the video to Mr. Scott's family, who said on social media that police accosted Mr. Scott while he was reading a book in his car, unarmed.

The police footage "does not give me absolute, definitive, visual evidence that would confirm that a person was pointing a gun," Chief Putney said. He added other evidence supports the police version of events, that Mr. Scott had a weapon and pointed it at police.

Chief Putney, speaking at a Thursday morning news conference, said 44 people were arrested on charges including failure to disperse, assault and breaking and entering. He said police were reviewing video, social media and other evidence and could make more arrests. He said police fired tear gas to disperse crowds and resources were strained by the protests.

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory late Wednesday declared a state of emergency at the city's request, authorizing National Guard and state troopers to help Charlotte police.

Chief Putney said Thursday that "several hundred" additional personnel were arriving to help make sure the city could handle any trouble Thursday night.

"We are going to be a lot more proactive," he said.

Around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, a civilian was shot and was rushed to the hospital with "life-threatening injuries," he said.

Initially, police tweeted that police weren't involved in the shooting. But Thursday morning Chief Putney said investigators were looking into what exactly happened.

Mayor Jennifer Roberts urged citizens Thursday to remain calm and said the city was "open for business as usual."

But downtown Charlotte on Thursday was far from normal.

Bank of America Corp. and other major employers encouraged thousands of employees to stay home Thursday, so the downtown sidewalks were relatively quiet.

Wells Fargo & Co. told all of its approximately 12,000 workers at offices in Charlotte's Uptown neighborhood that they didn't have to come to work Thursday, according to spokesman Josh Dunn. Employees were asked to work from home or alternative locations if they could, he said.

Duke Energy Corp. also told its 5,500 employees and contractors who work in the downtown Charlotte headquarters to work from home, said spokesman Tom Williams. The company, which owns or leases about 2 million square feet downtown, has also made "other arrangements to make sure operations safely continue," he said, though he wouldn't elaborate. The company operates five utilities in six states.

Traci Anderson said she watched Wednesday night's melee from her room at the Omni Hotel, after what started as a peaceful march from a public park vigil erupted in violence when some protesters faced off against Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers in riot gear. She saw the clouds of tear gas on the sidewalk below her window, heard the pop of what sounded like gunfire and watched people surround the injured protester a little after 8 p.m.

"It was crazy because everything's so normal and then all of a sudden, there's helicopters outside," she said. "It was surreal."

Looters broke windows at the Charlotte Hornets fan shop at the Time Warner Arena, hotels and other businesses, such as the Hyatt Place and United Way of Central Carolinas.

Many of the people milling around downtown were on work travel from other cities, such as Ms. Anderson, of Portland, Ore. She said local co-workers at her company tried to assure her that life in Charlotte wasn't normally like this, but she said she worried that what happened in Charlotte could happen anywhere. Ms. Anderson, who is white, has an adopted 4-year-old son who is black, and she said she and her husband are struggling to explain race in America to him.

"He's so little, but we're already talking to him, 'You need to listen to police, you need to be friends with police,' " she said.

Damian Johnson, co-owner of the No Grease barbershop downtown, said he was disappointed that the looting occurred, but not surprised. There has been anger in Charlotte brewing after the nation's long violent summer, and ever since a mistrial was declared last year in the fatal shooting of Jonathan Ferrell, a black man shot by a white Charlotte police officer. "There's going to be a breaking point, and that was our sign of the breaking point," he said.

Write to Valerie Bauerlein at valerie.bauerlein@wsj.com and Cameron McWhirter at cameron.mcwhirter@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 22, 2016 14:05 ET (18:05 GMT)

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024