Donald Trump on Wednesday urged Americans to come together after separate police shootings of black men in Charlotte, N.C., and Tulsa, Okla.
{mosads}Trump, the GOP’s presidential nominee, also called for an end to angry protests that began late Tuesday in Charlotte.
Demonstrations erupted in Charlotte after a man was shot and killed there by a police officer.
The Charlotte Observer on Tuesday reported officer Brentley Vinson, who is African-American, fired at Keith Lamont Scott, 43, during a confrontation.
Charlotte police said they were searching for someone with an outstanding warrant at The Village at College Downs apartment complex.
Scott was seen leaving a car there with a gun, prompting officers to use force when they concluded he presented danger.
“[He] posed an imminent deadly threat to the officers, who subsequently fired their weapon striking the subject,” Charlotte police said in a statement Tuesday. “The officer immediately requested Medic and began performing CPR.”
The Charlotte Observer said 12 police officers were injured late Tuesday during protests following Scott’s death.
At least seven of that total required hospitalization, it continued, including one officer who was hit in the face by a rock.
Charlotte police have not released details on how many people were arrested, the newspaper added, but some media outlets reported five people are in custody.
The Tulsa World on Wednesday, meanwhile, reported police found PCP in the car of an unarmed African-American man shot and killed there last week.
Terence Crutcher, 40, was fatally shot on Sept. 16 during a traffic stop.
A video of the incident shows Crutcher was unarmed and with his hands in the air when officer Betty Shelby fired upon him.
Trump’s remarks Wednesday are the first time the real estate tycoon has addressed either incident publicly.
Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, on Tuesday called Crutcher’s fatal shooting “unbearable” and “intolerable.”
National debate is raging over the relationship between law enforcement and minority communities in the wake of incidents like those in Charlotte and Tulsa.