CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Governor Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency in Charlotte and called in the National Guard on Wednesday night as protests over a police shooting turned violent for a second night.

A man was shot and seriously injured during Wednesday’s demonstrations, after two sharply divergent accounts emerged of the death of a black man at the hands of police a day earlier.

The march of a few hundred people turned chaotic after protesters attempted to follow police in riot gear into the lobby of an uptown hotel. Officers used tear gas, and then a reporter heard one shot and saw a man lying in the street near the hotel entrance.

The man was not shot by a police officer, the city of Charlotte said on its Twitter account.

Marchers threw bottles at police and used outdoor seating to break the windows of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, which then barricaded its doors.

In the aftermath of the afternoon death of Keith Lamont Scott on Tuesday, anger in the streets turned to looting and arson, and North Carolina’s largest city joined the list of communities across the country that have erupted amid a growing debate on racial bias in policing.

In Tulsa, Okla., meanwhile, protesters called for the arrest of the officer involved in a fatal shooting of a black man there on Monday. President Obama called the mayors of both cities to offer his condolences and pledge help, the White House announced.

At a news conference Wednesday, Charlotte police insisted that Scott had a gun and was posing an ‘‘imminent deadly threat’’ when officers shot him outside an apartment complex near the campus of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Scott’s family, however, said he was unarmed when he was killed and was instead reading a book in his car while waiting to pick up his child from school — a detail that quickly went viral on social media and was seized upon by protesters.

Officers were searching for another man, a suspect with outstanding warrants, when they spotted Scott emerging from a vehicle and armed with a handgun, police said.

‘‘The officers gave loud, clear verbal commands’’ telling Scott to drop the weapon, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney said. ‘‘Mr. Scott exited his vehicle armed with a handgun as the officers continued to yell at him to drop it. He stepped out, posing a threat to the officers.’’

Putney said police recovered a gun but didn’t find a book at the scene.

‘‘It’s time to change the narrative, because I can tell you from the facts that the story is a little bit different as to how it’s been portrayed so far, especially through social media,’’ he said.

The police chief also said the officer who shot Scott was in plainclothes, wearing a vest with a police logo, and was accompanied by other officers in full uniform. The plainclothes officer wasn’t wearing a body camera, but the other officers were.

Whether authorities can defuse the current anger on the streets could hinge on that body-cam footage. The shooting has thrust Charlotte to the fore of a national debate about access to police body cams.

Putney said the department wouldn’t release any footage until a police investigation is complete. By that time, its release may no longer be legal. A new state law effective Oct. 1 forbids police agencies from making body camera footage public without a court order.

‘‘At a time when you’re seeing other states becoming more transparent, North Carolina is taking this tremendous step backward,’’ said Mike Meno, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina.

The violent protests and conflicting accounts in Charlotte proves ‘‘just how misguided this new law is,’’ Meno said, and shows exactly why public access to such footage is crucial.

Charlotte’s mayor, however, said she does not believe the new law will apply to the footage, adding that she’s asked the chief to show it to her and a small group of community leaders such as the NAACP chairman.

The new legislation is just the latest national controversy over equity and civil rights to develop out of North Carolina. In recent months, progressive forces have clashed with conservative ones over black voting rights, bathroom use for transgender people, and now police shootings and body camera access.

In the first hours after the shooting Tuesday, a large crowd gathered near the university, some chanting ‘‘Black lives matter’’ and ‘‘Hands up, don’t shoot.’’

As the protest grew in size and anger, police appeared in riot gear and fired tear gas and rubber bullets. Some protesters began smashing the windows of police cars.

By early Wednesday, demonstrators had shut down traffic on Interstate 85. Some opened the backs of tractor-trailers, took out boxes, and set them on fire in the middle of the highway.

A few dozen people appeared to have broken into a nearby Walmart, then dispersed when authorities arrived.

Among the 16 officers hurt in the violence, one was hit in the face with a rock, authorities said. At least 11 people were taken from the demonstrations and treated for life-threatening injuries, hospital officials said.