The man killed by police in a confrontation that sparked a deadly protest in North Carolina did own a gun and once threatened to kill his family, according to his wife.

The information, contrary to what relatives had previously said, emerged as officials continue to investigate the police killing of 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott next to his car in Charlotte earlier in September (2016).

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In another disturbing development in the community, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department's headquarters were evacuated following the discovery of a suspicious package.

Officers moved back into the building after a robot removed the package for "evaluation" and to be "rendered safe" at a remote location, police said.

The shooting of Scott has torn the community in two with both the police and the family maintaining different versions of what happened.

Scott's family has said he was quietly reading a book in his car when police officers ordered him out and shot him four times on 20 September.

But police say he was shot by police Officer Brentley Vinson as Scott exited his car brandishing a gun after officers warned him several times to drop it. Officials say a gun, not a book, was recovered at the scene.

Two videos, one from the family and another from an officer's body cam, have been released of the confrontation, but neither is clear enough to easily ascertain what was in Scott's hand outside the car.

But Scott has emerged, in court records, as more violent than recently profiled by his family. According to court documents obtained by WSOC-TV, Scott threatened his family with a 9 mm handgun last year. An attorney speaking for the family has insisted to the press Scott did not own a gun.

The documents were filed by Scott's wife, Rakeyia Scott, in October 2015 to obtain a domestic violence protective court order against her husband.

Rakeyia Scott said in the documents that her husband "hit my 8-year-old in the head a total of three times with his fist" and "kicked me and threaten to kill us with his gun." He told his family that "he's a killer and they should know that," she added.

Police sources have said that Scott's gun was stolen by someone else and purchased by him without a permit. He was a convicted felon who served 7 years for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon beginning in 2005, so he would not have been able to obtain a gun permit.

The protective order was dismissed a short time after it was obtained when Scott's wife told the court he was no longer a threat to his family.

In filings for another domestic violence protective order in 2004 found by WSOC, Rakeyia Scott also claimed her husband stabbed her in the back, almost puncturing her lungs.

Justin Bamberg, a lawyer for the Scott family, has emphasised that what Scott did in the past has no bearing on whether the police should have used lethal force in their confrontation with him.

Scott's friends have described him as a devoted father whose behaviour changed after he suffered a traumatic brain injury in a motorcycle crash.

The outrage over Scott's killing by a police officer triggered violent protests in downtown Charlotte, where one man was killed by a gunman.