Why would resulting_command need to be declared, when declaring it?

gistfile1.cpp

command_parser.cpp:13: error: ‘resulting_command’ was not declared in this scope..

  command& command_parser::parse(const std::string& command) {
13: command* resulting_command = NULL;
    std::vector<std::string> parts;
    boost::split(parts, command, boost::is_any_of(" "));
    
    std::string cmd = parts.at(0);
    boost::to_upper(cmd);
    parts.erase(parts.begin());
    
    
    
    if (cmd == "AUTH") {
      resulting_command = new auth_command();
    }
    
    if (resulting_command != NULL) {
      resulting_command.initialize(parts);
    }
    
    return &resulting_command;
  }