Friend: 'No hate' in Charlotte officer who shot black man

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Before he became known as the police officer who shot a black man fatally, sparking days of protests in North Carolina's largest city, friends knew Brent Vinson as someone who ascended into leadership naturally, a former college football player with a peacemaker's heart.

The son of a police officer, Vinson's future hangs in the balance as authorities determine whether he was justified in killing Keith Lamont Scott on Sept. 20.

"It's heartbreaking," said Dustin Allman, who was video coordinator on the football team at Liberty University, where Vinson played defense. "There's no hate in this guy."

The 26-year-old Vinson, who also is black, is on administrative leave as officials review the death of Scott, 43.

Police have said Scott was armed with a pistol and refused to drop it when Vinson opened fire in the parking lot of an apartment complex where Vinson and another officer had gone to serve an arrest warrant.

While video of the shooting shows only a glimpse of Vinson, the crack of four gunshots is plain. The officer hasn't commented publicly, but police have said in a statement that Vinson "perceived Mr. Scott's actions and movements as an imminent physical threat to himself and the other officers" when he fired.

Bryce Laguer, 26, said he attended high school in Charlotte with Vinson and has known him about 12 years. He described Vinson as a person who was taught moral principles by his parents and applied them as a teenager by "debugging" conflicts at school before they escalated.

"There are very few men who I have met who can balance toughness and tenderness," Laguer said. "Brent Vinson is that man."

Vinson's official biography on the football website at Liberty, a Christian university, describes a fast, physical player who excelled on the field and was valued for his team leadership.

He was elected captain by his teammates, an honor Allman said goes only to the "cream of the crop."

"He just had this humility about it," said Allman, who pastors a church in Kingsport, Tennessee. "People really just gravitated to him. He was a very friendly guy."

Vinson majored in criminal justice, setting the stage for a life in law enforcement like his dad, Alex Vinson, who retired from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department as a sergeant about a decade ago.

Brent Vinson was hired in July 2014 at a salary of about $42,000, records show. He was being paid around $53,000 annually and worked on a plainclothes detail that targeted crime hotspots at the time of the shooting, the police department said.