Walter Scott Shooting Video Posted Online
South Carolina police officer Michael Thomas Slager has already been charged with murder Tuesday, hours after law enforcement officials viewed this Walter Scott shooting video captured by a witness.
Via AP:
A white South Carolina police officer was charged with murder Tuesday, hours after law enforcement officials viewed a dramatic video that appears to show him shooting a fleeing man several times in the back.
North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey announced the charges at a hastily called news conference in which he said City Patrolman Michael Thomas Slager made “a bad decision.”
The shooting, which began as a traffic stop, occurred as Americans grapple with issues of trust between law enforcement and minority communities after a series of deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police. They include the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner on Staten Island, New York. Both sparked protests nationwide.
In the Charleston case, authorities said the victim, 50-year-old Walter Lamer Scott, was shot after the officer already hit him with a stun gun.
VIDEO
Don't let this go unnoticed. He was unarmed. No reason for that cop to shoot him in the back.
#WalterScott pic.twitter.com/RpNfIYUBEY
— brian (@ayyyybrian) April 8, 2015