Nearly a week of riots and protests over the fatal shooting of an African American man in Charlotte, North Carolina led to the anticipated release of the police footage on Saturday. To the country’s dismay, no light was shed as to whether Keith Scott was in fact threatening police with a gun before being shot. However, College of DuPage has come to one mutual  conclusion: the violence in Charlotte is a reflection of a grander scale of divide among Americans.

The controversial death has made Charlotte the latest hotspot in the ongoing protest against police killings of African American men in the United States. Fervent riots morphed into peaceful protests since the fatal encounter last Tuesday. Demonstrators began Wednesday morning by blocking an interstate and have continued demonstrations the subsequent nights since.

David Swope, COD’s manager of Diversity and Inclusion, believes the divide amongst African Americans and Caucasians in America has exploded into an era of civil unrest.

“Personally, I do believe that America struggles with it’s own biases and I do think that those biases can hamper the way that justice is carried out,” Swope said. “One of the largest biases in American history, unfortunately, is racism.”

Police released body camera and dashboard camera footage on Saturday. The footage  shows two officers running towards a white truck with guns drawn and pointing while shouting “Drop the gun!” Scott’s wife responds, “He doesn’t have a gun.”

Scott, 43, then exits his car and immediately falls to the ground as four shots ring out. It is not clear whether he was holding anything.

COD student and Turning Point USA president Patrick Wool weighed in on the controversial video, explaining that the footage interpretation is up to the viewer.

“There may have been a gun in his hand or there may have not been,” Wool said. “It really just leads up to speculation at this point. But at the end of the day this is just a sad thing that happened in Charlotte, and I wouldn’t wish that upon any community.”

In regards to the violence and riots, Wool believes the protestors’ actions were premature due to the lack of information on the shooting at the time.

“I understand the anger and frustration,” Wool said. “But rioting just destroys neighborhoods and divides the people more.”

One day before the police videos were released, Scott’s widow released her own video of the minutes leading up to her husband’s death. She shouts to police that her husband has a brain injury as they scream at Scott to put down a gun. This also shows no visual evidence of whether Scott was holding a gun or not.