Family Demanding Answers after Police Fatally Shoot Mentally Ill NC Teenager (+video)

Photo Credit: NBC

Photo Credit: NBC

North Carolina prosecutors promised Monday to get to the truth — “wherever the truth leads”— in the death of a mentally ill teenager whose family claims police shot him in cold blood over the weekend.

Keith Vidal, 18, of Boiling Springs Lakes, was shot and killed Sunday afternoon, authorities said.

At least three law enforcement agencies responded after the family called for help just after noon, saying Vidal was in the midst of a schizophrenic episode.

Vidal was declared dead of a gunshot wound at a hospital.

Jerry Dove, chief of the Southport police, one of the responding agencies, said at a news conference that Detective Byron Vassey, a nine-year veteran of the department, had been placed on administrative leave. He wouldn’t say whether Vassey was believed to be the officer who fired the shot.

Vidal’s family showed up at the news conference — to which they said they weren’t invited — carrying placards, demanding justice and insisting that their son posed no threat when he was shot.

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