Shooting of Walter Scott

Shooting of Walter Scott

File:Shooting of Walter Scott.jpeg Screenshot of phone video taken by eyewitness Feidin Santana, showing Officer Michael Slager shooting Walter Scott
Time	9:30 a.m. (EDT)
Date	April 4, 2015 (2015-04-04)
Location	North Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.
Coordinates	(traffic stop) (shooting)
Filmed by	Feidin Santana
Deaths	Walter Scott
Accused	Michael Slager
Charges	Murder

The shooting of Walter Scott occurred on April 4, 2015, in North Charleston, South Carolina, following a daytime traffic stop for a non-functioning brake light. Scott, a black man, was fatally shot by Michael Slager, a white North Charleston police officer. Slager was charged with murder after a video surfaced contradicting his police report. The video showed him shooting the unarmed Scott from behind while Scott was fleeing.

The case was independently investigated by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of South Carolina, and the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division are conducting their own investigations.

In June 2015, a South Carolina grand jury indicted Slager on a charge of murder. He was released on bond in January 2016 and a trial is scheduled to begin in October 2016. In May 2016, Slager was indicted on federal charges including violation of Scott's civil rights and obstruction of justice.

Backgrounds

Walter Scott

Scott during his service in the U.S. Coast Guard in the mid-1980s

Walter Lamar Scott (February 9, 1965 – April 4, 2015), a 50-year-old black man, was a forklift operator, studying massage therapy. Scott previously served two years in the U.S. Coast Guard before being given a general discharge in 1986 for a drug-related incident.

Scott’s police record listed ten arrests: for contempt of court regarding failure to pay child support or to appear for court hearings; he was arrested in 1987 on an assault and battery charge and convicted in 1991 for possession of a bludgeon.

Michael Slager

Michael Thomas Slager (born November 14, 1981), 33 years old at the time of the incident, served in the North Charleston Police Department (NCPD) for five years and five months prior to the shooting. Before becoming a police officer, he served in the U.S. Coast Guard.

Slager was named in a police complaint in 2013 for allegedly using a Taser on a man without cause. Slager was cleared over the incident; the victim and several witnesses said they were not interviewed. Following the Scott shooting, North Charleston police stated they would re-review the 2013 complaint. Slager was named in a second tasing-without-cause complaint following an August 2014 police stop. A complaint filed in January 2015 resulted in Slager being cited for failing to file a report.

Personnel documents describe Slager as having demonstrated "great officer safety tactics" in dealing with suspects, and note his proficiency with a Taser.

Location

Local residents have complained that policing in North Charleston includes the harassment and racial profiling of African Americans, including frequent use of Tasers without cause. In North Charleston, whites make up 37% of the population, but the police department is 80% white.

Shooting

At 9:30 a.m., April 4, 2015, in the parking lot of an auto parts store at 1945 Remount Road, Slager stopped Scott for a non-functioning third brake light. Scott was driving a 1991 Mercedes, and, according to his brother, was headed to the auto parts store when he was stopped. The video from Slager's dashcam shows him approaching Scott's car, speaking to Scott, and then returning to his patrol car. Scott exited his car and fled with Slager giving chase on foot.

Slager pursued Scott to a lot behind a pawn shop at 5654 Rivers Avenue, and the two became involved in a physical altercation. According to the incident report and city officials, Slager then fired his Taser, hitting Scott. Scott fled, and Slager drew his handgun, firing eight rounds at him from behind. The coroner's report stated that Scott was struck a total of five times: three times in the back, once in the upper buttocks, and once on one of his ears. Official autopsy reports have not been released.

Immediately following the shooting, Slager radioed a dispatcher, stating, "Shots fired and the subject is down. He took my Taser."

When Slager fired his gun, Scott was approximately 15 to 20 feet (5 to 6 m) away and fleeing. In the report of the shooting filed before the video surfaced, Slager said he had feared for his life because Scott had taken his Taser, and that he shot Scott because he "felt threatened".

A passenger in Scott's car, reported to be a male co-worker and friend, was later placed in the back of a police vehicle and briefly detained.

A toxicology report showed that Scott had cocaine and alcohol in his system at the time of his death. The level of cocaine was less than half the average amount for "typical impaired drivers", according to the report.

Eyewitness video

External video
Traffic stop
Shooting

An eyewitness to the shooting, Feidin Santana, recorded video of the incident on his phone. At first Santana did not share the video out of fear of retribution, but he became angered when the police report differed from his view of the events. In an interview on MSNBC, Santana said, "I felt that my life, with this information, might be in danger. I thought about erasing the video and just getting out of the community, you know Charleston, and living some place else." The video was subsequently shared with Scott's family through an activist of Black Lives Matter, and later with the news media.

Santana said that after a struggle in which Slager deployed his Taser, Scott was "just trying to get away from the Taser," and that before he started recording, he observed that Slager "had control of the situation". In an interview on The Today Show, Santana said Scott "never grabbed the Taser of the police. He never got the Taser."

After Scott was shot and had dropped to the ground, Slager approached him, repeatedly instructed him to place his hands behind his back, and handcuffed him, leaving him face down on the ground. Although police reports stated that officers performed CPR on Scott, no such action is visible on the video. The video shows that Slager ran back toward where the initial scuffle occurred and picked something up off the ground. Moments later, he dropped the object, possibly the Taser, beside Scott's body.

Another officer, identified as Clarence W. Habersham Jr., is seen in the video; he puts on medical gloves and appears to examine Scott.

Aftermath

There have been calls for the prosecution of Clarence Habersham, the second officer seen in the video, for an attempted cover-up with allegations that he made false statements and deliberately left facts out of his report in an attempt to protect Slager. Habersham has also been criticized for stating that he attempted to render aid to the victim by applying pressure to the gunshot wounds despite no such indication in the video.

Slager's original lawyer, David Aylor, withdrew as counsel within hours of the release of the video. When questioned in an interview, Aylor declined to give a reason for his withdrawal, citing attorney–client privilege. David Aylor issued the following statement on his official website "Today, I withdrew my representation of Michael Slager. This is a terrible tragedy that has impacted our community."

On April 8, the North Charleston city manager announced that the NCPD had fired Slager but would continue to pay for his health insurance because his wife was pregnant. The town's mayor, Keith Summey, said they had ordered an additional 150 body cameras, enough that one could be worn by every police officer.

A GoFundMe campaign was started to raise money for Slager's defense, but it was quickly shut down by the site. Citing privacy concerns, they declined to go into detail about why the campaign was canceled, saying only that it was "due to a violation of our terms and conditions".

Scott's funeral took place on April 11, at the W.O.R.D. Ministries Christian Center in Summerville, about 20 miles from North Charleston.

Scott's killing further fueled a national conversation around race and policing. It has been connected to similar events in Missouri, New York, and elsewhere. The Black Lives Matter movement protested Scott's death.

A bill in the South Carolina state house designed to equip more police officers with body cameras, was renamed for Walter Scott. The Senate set aside US$3.4 million to fund it, enough to buy 2,000 cameras for South Carolina officers.

Investigation

The use of deadly force by law enforcement in the United States is subject to the 1985 Tennessee v. Garner decision, which ruled that when a law enforcement officer is pursuing a fleeing suspect, he or she may not use deadly force to prevent escape unless "the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others".

Separate investigations are being conducted by the FBI, the U.S. Attorney in South Carolina, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED).

State murder charge

After the police department reviewed the video, Slager was arrested on April 7 and charged with murder.

On June 8, a South Carolina grand jury indicted Slager on the murder charge after a few hours of deliberation. If convicted, he would face between 30 years and life in prison without the possibility of parole. The murder charge was the only charge presented to the grand jury.

On January 4, 2016, after being held without bail for almost nine months, Slager was released on $500,000 bond. He is confined to house arrest until the trial, which is scheduled to begin October 31, 2016.

Federal charges

On May 11, 2016, Slager was indicted on federal charges of violating Scott’s civil rights and unlawfully using a weapon during the commission of a crime. In addition, he was charged with obstruction of justice as a result of his statement to state investigators that Scott was moving toward him with the Taser when he shot him.

See also

• List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States

External links

• (with annotations and enhanced close up of a dropped object)
• (Entire video with annotations)