North Charleston Officer Charged with Murder for Killing of Fleeing, Unarmed Man

Walter Scott being shot down as he fled unarmed. Image-Screenshot NYT/YouTube video
Walter Scott being shot down as he fled unarmed. Image-Screenshot NYT/YouTube video

Another case of officer-involved shooting of an unarmed black man is unfolding in the state of South Carolina, and that officer has been arrested after a video shot by a bystander nearby was released to the victim’s family, who’s attorney in turn, released it to the New York Times.

The incident played out after a Charleston police officer, identified as 33-year-old Michael T Slager, pulled over a 50-year-old driver of a Mercedes-Benz, identified as Walter L. Scott, for a broken tail light.

Video was recorded by a bystander who began filming as Scott ran from Slager. In the footage, the un-armed Scott could be seen running away from the scene as Slager opened fire on the fleeing man, shooting eight times, hitting him at least five times, and ultimately killing Scott.

Slager then got on his radio and radioed dispatch, saying “Shots fired and the subject is down. He took my taser.”

Slager then walked over to the dying man, and without rendering him aid, handcuffed him. before running back over to where he originally stood and had fired at Scott.

It was at that point that Slager bent down and picked up a dark object that is believed to have been the officer’s taser. Slager went back over to Scott and dropped the object down next to his body.

Scott was hit three times in the back, once in the ear, and once in his posterior. One of the bullets that entered his back, pierced his heart.

The official report coming out of the department, said that the officers rendered CPR to Scott as he lay dying. But, video showed that Scott lay face down where Slager had shot and handcuffed him for several minutes before a second officer arrived at the scene and begins attending to Scott. A third officer arrived at the scene with a medical kit later, but the video does not show him rendering CPR to Scott eother.

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The man who filmed the incident on his cell phone, Feidin Santana, Spoke with the New York Times. He told reporters that he was walking to work on Saturday morning when he saw officer Slager with Scott on the ground. Santana said that Slager fired his tazer at Scott. It was then that Santana said he began videoing the deadly incident. In the footage, as Scott was fleeing the officer, taser wires could be seen trailing behind him.

Scott’s family told reporters that they believe that Scott had run from the officer because he did not want to go back to jail for failure to pay child support. A check of Scott’s record shows that the majority of Scott’s criminal history was in fact related to Scott’s failure to pay child support, and failure to appear in cases connected with that.

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