Rally held uptown after deadly officer-involved shootings in U.S.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Dozens of people rallied in uptown Charlotte Thursday night for an end to the violence involving police officers and black men.

The protests continued late into Thursday evening. By 11 p.m., many were at Trade and Tryon streets protesting peacefully and holding hands.

Earlier in the evening, protesters were blocking the intersection.

The rally comes after two deadly shootings, one in Louisiana and another in Minnesota.

The fiancée of a man killed by police during a traffic stop in Minnesota did not hold back Thursday when talking to reporters.

Diamond Reynolds said she wants justice for her boyfriend, Philando Castile, who died Wednesday.

Reynolds live streamed the aftermath of the shooting on Facebook.

In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, residents were mourning the death of Alton Sterling.

Sterling, 37, was selling CDs near a convenience store early Tuesday and in a video, it appears that an officer was pinning Sterling to the ground with a second officer assisting.

A witness said one of them yelled "gun," then the deadly shots were fired.

The shootings have left many in Charlotte's African-American community desperate for answers.

Eyewitness News reporter Mark Becker spoke with the NAACP Thursday and an attorney who has represented police in those kinds of cases.

“As a black woman, I'm am angry, very angry,” Corinne Mack, president of the Charlotte NAACP, said.

She said the shootings expose a deep racial divide that is every bit as real in Charlotte, when white officers have shot black men.

“All they (police) have to say is, 'Oh, I was afraid for my life.' Really?” Mack said.

Scott Maclatchie is a Charlotte attorney and former Los Angeles police officer who now represents officers who've been sued in shootings.

“I don't believe that's fair, and there are some national statistics recently released that would belie that notion,” Maclatchie said.

He said the videos may not show the whole story, or show why the officers fired the fatal shots.

“A threat comes in any color to an officer,” Maclatchie said. “I have not trained officers and I have not been trained myself that color or race or ethnicity factors into a threat.”

Cox Media Group