North Charleston, South Carolina – Officer Michael Slager, 33, has been charged with murder. This was based on video evidence that shows him shooting Walter Scott after a traffic stop, according to North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey.
“When you’re wrong, you’re wrong,” Mr. Summey stated at a news conference. “If you make a bad decision, [I] don’t care if you are behind the shield or a citizen on the street, you have to live by that decision.”
“Without the video… it would be difficult for us to ascertain exactly what did occur,” Summey said. “We want to thank the young person who came forward… because it has helped us resolve the issue.”
Slager’s original attorney, David Aylor, said that Slager had claimed he had felt “threatened” after Mr. Scott got hold of his Taser. Aylor is no longer representing officer Slager, and does not know if he has a new lawyer.
Slager is being held at the Charleston County Detention Center, according to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. The FBI’s South Carolina office is assisting with the investigation.
The murder of Walter Scott comes at a time when tensions across the nation are already high, due to the Ferguson shooting of 18-year-old, Michael Brown. The Ferguson Police Department has since been found guilty of racial bias by the Justice Department.
Slager is one of 343 police officers in North Charleston, and this is the 11th officer-related shooting this year. Chief Eddie Drigger says he wants to show the public that the actions of officer Slager are not usual for their area. “One does not totally throw a blanket across the many,” he said.
According to the professor and chairwoman of the Department of Law, Maki Haberfeld, it will be difficult for police to justify the shooting.
“If somebody’s running away from you, it’s not like your life or somebody else’s life is in danger,” Ms. Haberfeld stated, however she also said she believes the charge of murder goes too far in this situation. “Murder should have some element of premeditation. I don’t think an officer who in doing their job makes an error in judgement wakes up thinking they want to kill somebody.”
The tragedy began as Slager pulled Scott over during a routine traffic stop for a broken taillight. Scott ran from the officer, who in turn chased him into a grassy clearing. Slager said that he had fired his Taser, but this did not stop Scott. Officer Slager’s testimony is contradicted by video evidence, which actually shows both Slager and Scott grasping at each other’s hands.
Scott is then seen running from the officer, at which point officer Slager draws his pistol and begins to fire a series of seven shots. Scott’s back bows, he then stumbles, and falls to his knees. Slager begins to speak into his radio while periodically yelling at Scott to “Put your hands behind your back.”
Scott was pronounced dead at the scene.
The “cameraman” is being hailed a hero by North Charleston Pastor Nelson Rivers, who is a vice president in Reverend Al Sharpton’s National Action Network. Rivers made the statement, saying that he was alarmed at the ease at which officer Slager shot Walter Scott, saying that the officer showed little understanding of “what life means” and calling it “sobering and evil”.
Local county Councilwoman Dorothy Williams is asking citizens “to continue taping”.
It is important not only to the family that justice is served, but to the nation. People need to see that justice still exists, and North Charleston is setting an example.
In a statement from the victim’s brother, Anthony Scott:
“From the beginning, all we wanted was the truth… I think through the process we’ve seen the truth. We can’t get my brother back, and my family is in deep mourning for that… but through the process, justice has been served,” he said. “I don’t think all police officers are bad cops, but there are some bad ones out there. I don’t want to see anyone get shot down the way my brother got shot down.”
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Sources:
Bauerlein, Valerie. The Wall Street Journal. Apr 7, 2015. (http://www.wsj.com/articles/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder-in-shooting-of-motorist-1428448041?mod=rss_US_News)
- RT. Apr 8, 2015. (http://rt.com/usa/247697-south-carolina-cop-murder/)
good, give him the death penalty
Another half-assed article. Half-assed because it gives no context. What happened before dude ran? What was the verbal exchange between the two there? Video is just as biased as any witness. Why? because you can fill in the blanks with whatever you want. So all your doing is making people angry and your playing them on their ignorance. GET ALL THE FACT INTO YOUR ARTICLES. No I’m not a cop and I’m not a fan of the government in general. But I do care about TRUTH and FACTS. Not somebodies biased opinions based on a short video that only show’s one part of the whole situation. There was no explanation as to why he ran in the first place? How do we know he wasn’t a wanted criminal and that’s why he ran? Was the person shot and killed investigated? BTW it came out that michael brown did charge back at the officer. that justifies being shot because If i was a civilian and someone smacked the shit out of me in my car and they starting running back at me god damn right i’m going to shoot. You all seem to be just as biased and ignorant as the mainstream media. If you were not on the scene you have no idea what actually happened. End of fucking story. I mean no offense but again, I want the full truth not some half-assed assumptions based on partial information. I hope you all can understand that.
It’s our duty to reveal the facts that are hidden but it’s also yours, what would you like to share more on this matter? thanks.
I’m a big fan of truth and facts too, but I fail to see the reason to shoot somebody EIGHT times even if they are running, wanted criminal or not, that is giving out the death sentence to anyone and anything without the person being shot at getting a chance to defent themselves in court or at least end up in prison/get the actual death sentence (which in most cases are seial killers). One shot is enough to get someone down if you aim for the legs and you can see the direct impact of someone getting shot in the leg while running, that cop totally aimed for the back and he shot as if he was playing with a toy, not having an actual weapon in his hands. And whatever you say, that dude is dead and nothing can bring him back. If he was guilty or not for any crime and worthy of the death sentence is up for the judges not for a cop to give.
And also, did you think that maybe all fact ain’t out yet? The only thing one can do is either try to search for the fact themselves or wait for the media (not so reliable but w/e) to give out more info. Given the fact that you’re just moaning about anon not having posted an article of all facts instead of searching it up and posting in the comments whatever more facts you could find and tell them exactly what facts they either missed/didn’t know/purposely forgot show’s that you’re not much in here to fix it, more like just here to complain like a billionare that says his wish and it’s granted..
This isn’t Michael fucking Brown, this is blatant murder. The exchange beforehand doesn’t matter at this point given that there was no visible aggression before the victim turning tail and getting his ass ganked.
The video of what happened first (police dashcam) is also out there to view,like you,i wanted to see how it started,unlike you i took the time to find it myself.
So you’re saying the use of deadly force is okay if someone is running away from a police officer? The guy was clearly not a threat, he was facing away from the officer running from him…
Errr, the situation is totally irrelevant. Nothing that happened that we haven’t seen could possibly justify gunning down somebody like this. Wanted criminal or not, this is murder.
Have you read any of the other articles on this? All the information given in this article is the only information that’s out there as of now. I’ve read like four different articles on it, and I still can’t tell you exactly what the guy was doing before he ran, other than he had been pulled over. You can’t blame those at Anonymous for the lack of information that’s being put out there, that’s ridiculous. There are new articles coming out on this at other sites as the situation progresses, I suggest looking there for additional information, but you can’t blame the people providing information when it’s all they have to begin with. Do you want Anonymous to just make some shit up like a tabloid? You should do a little research first, and think before speaking.
1 shot to the leg would have bin enough. 8 in the back is a bit much I would say.
Spayd — it is every person’s right to have trial by jury. Being murdered by a man that you are paying his salary via taxes, specifically by being shot in the back while running from an officer, is illegal. It’s a breach of the rules of engagement for officers. So in reality, the context of this video is near irrelevant. He could be a wanted serial killer that just told the officer to go fuck himself, and the officer would still be in the wrong.
Sure we could clog up the article with non-sense details, but the core of this issue is that you have an undertrained police officer who was forced to rely on murder rather than chasing the man down. I guess he couldn’t use his taser because he was so undertrained that he was disarmed. Giving people who are not trained properly the ability to kill on judgement is a large issue, and in any other instance without this video, the officer has gotten away no problems. So when you call this video biased, I would say that you are a fool. In any legal domain, this video is all the context needed to find the breach in law.
If you want to talk about its moral bias, an officer that must shoot an innocent (innocent until proven guilty is the way of our nation) man in the back is nothing short of being a coward and a criminal, and he should be prosecuted like the rest of us. In fact, if an officer saw us do what he did, he would kill us without hesitation. This officer should be put to death.
This is my opinion, but I would personally rather be murdered by a psychopath or a gang-banger than an officer of the law sworn to “protect and serve”.
There have been roughly 150 deaths on U.S. soil attributed to terrorism since 9/11, and the Justice Department has given a report that the number of shootings of unarmed civilians are widely underreported and are likely somewhere near ~950 per year. So when you watch the news or read an article about the Islamic State and fear for your life, since 9/11, it is almost 100 times more likely that you will be attacked by a local police officer than a terrorist.
It’s those kinds of statistics that make me feel absolutely no sympathy for the police in this country. They are massively armed, and heavily undertrained, and are near immune to the punishments of the Justice System, and we pay their fucking salaries. Shake my mother fucking head. Lets change something.
Cop is white and poor guy shot is black
He will walk out this case and will probably kill another innocent people again till someone fights back and kill him than he will remembered as hero
The end of story
*sigh* we really need to do more about this before the black community decides to do something about it FOR US and trust me sooner or later they will and to an extent its already started…a few years ago I thought we as a country had for the most part delt with racisim but clearly I was highly mistaken which saddens me dearly. Clearly we need to start lableling these rascist assholes and stop them from workin in public service jobs much like we do with pedophiles and where they can set up residents… just my 2 cents..
if u protest do it if the lord was watching …cuz aint no reason to make south carolina a leaving hell….cuz i got to live here and yall dont ….
living*
He ran because he was in fear of losing another job, for going to jail behind child support debt. Father’s all over the country are losing their lives to suicide after going to family court, losing custody and then being made to pay child support for children they once had great relationships with but after divorce they become alienated from. I am a father not a paycheck. Anonymous I need your help!