CHARLOTTE -- More details are emerging about the man shot and killed by a Charlotte police officer last week. Keith Scott has served time in prison in Texas for assault with a deadly weapon, and just last year, his wife received and later dropped a restraining order against him.
Court documents show Keith Scott worked as a security guard at Eastridge Mall in Gastonia, providing for his wife and seven children. He was a family man, his friends say.
"You see him, you see his wife. You see him, you see his kids. That's what I mean about a family man,” said friend Toccaro Harris, who lived across the street from Scott when he lived in Gastonia.
Records show briefly last year, Scott’s wife took out a restraining order against him.
“He hit my 8 year old in the head a total of three times with is [sic] fist....He kicked me and threaten [sic] to kill us last night with his gun. He said he is a ‘killer’ and we should know that,” she wrote on the form last October.
The complaint asked, “Is there any reason that a law enforcement officer should consider the defendant a potential threat? (i.e., carries concealed weapons while drinking alcohol, has threatened officer, etc.)”
She marked “yes” and wrote, “He carries a 9mm black.”
The protective order was filed Oct. 5, 2015, and Rakeyia Scott voluntarily dismissed it on Oct. 16, 2015.
"It doesn't mean that he was bad. It doesn't mean that he had a right to get his life [taken],” Harris said.
Scott also had convictions in Gaston County for DWI and assault with a deadly weapon.
In Texas, he served more than eight years for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and evading arrest. His attorney for that case told Time Warner Cable News he shot a man he believed was threatening his family.
Scott also has convictions in South Carolina for traffic offenses.
At the time of last week’s shooting, his friends and family say he was recovering from a traumatic brain injury and other injuries suffered during an accident.