Posted on 04/08/2015 3:53:26 AM PDT by from occupied ga
North Charleston, S.C. — A white police officer in South Carolina is charged with murder after a bystander recorded video of him shooting and killing an apparently unarmed black man in the back as he ran way from the scene of a traffic stop.
The New York Times posted the video Tuesday. It is disturbing. (Scroll down to see video.)
Officer Michael T. Slager, 33, claimed he feared for his life because the man took a stun gun during a scuffle Saturday, but the video does not confirm that.
The video shows Slager firing eight times and shooting Walter L. Scott, 50, in the back as Scott loped away across a grassy lot.
Scott was driving a Mercedes-Benz and had been stopped by Slager for a broken tail light, according to police reports cited in the Times story.
“At the time, Scott was wanted for arrest on a Family Court warrant, Charleston County sheriff’s Maj. Eric Watson said Tuesday.” (Source: The Post and Courier)
The police reports said Slager fired his Taser at Scott, and Scott turned to run away from the gun’s electrical current, which could be seen extending from his body.
In other news the blind squirrel finally finds a nut.
after getting it wrong so many times Jesse jackracist and al sharpracist and company finally got their true martyr in their jihad against white cops.
You can’t be sure if someone is going to die from being shot, if they will stop running or fighting, or if they have a lethal weapon hidden on them.
Unless someone is knocked unconscious (shot in the head) or faints, it usually takes a minute or a few to die, sometimes hours.
As an earlier poster noted an individual shot by an M2 (.50 cal) continued to operate for some short time. An M2 can blow someone’s leg off and send their body flinging 20 feet in the air.
I knew a guy who was shot in the chest with a .45 in an elevator, and went on to live a normal life. Another young man I knew took five .38’s in the torso and recovered (similar to this incident - 5 hits out of 8 shots). I saw a guy take nine hits from a rifle (.223) and continue running around, although he died in a minute or two.
A well known tough guy in the neighborhood threw a hefty beating on a guy and left him bleeding with broken bones, only to be shot dead while walking away from an opponent he thought was subdued, but who had a concealed gun he finally got a chance to draw.
So it makes sense to me to cuff him, as long as his heart is beating.
I was struck by the apparent cold bloodedness of the police officer. I assume that he shot him because he was upset over the confrontation and made this bad judgement out of anger and adrenaline, but I don’t really see it in the video. He will pay heavily for it.
Hard to make it a black/white thing when the black cop was standing right there when he threw the taser down by the dead guy
That's what I'm seeing too. The taser is laying on the ground, possible struggle for that, and when the vic sees the cop go for the gun, he runs.
Amazing. At .24 on the video, the cop after shooting, looks directly at the guy shooting the video, clearly sees him.
I wonder how the cop could tell during daylight. Why did he have the man step out of his vehicle?
I think by that time other cops were on the way and may have been on the scene.
But yeah, the dude with the iPhone is damn lucky.
“Hard to make it a black/white thing when the black cop was standing right there when he threw the taser down by the dead guy.”
They are cops first and will cover for each other.
If they rat out a fellow cop, the reponse time for the next time they need back up is going to be very slow.
“This cop is going down … no way out of this one.”
The cop deserves to be in prison for the rest of his life.
And the system will want to make an example out of him.
He is toast.
I bet the dude with the iPhone checks twenty times a day to make sure his taillights are in working order.
Maybe, maybe not.
Long sentences were handed out in the Danziger Bridge incident
Much shorter sentences were handed out in the Kathryn Johnson incident
And the SWAT cops who threw a grenade into a toddler's playpen injuring him severely got off entirely and the county didn't even pay the kid's medical bills.
A note that it's a little more than just the actual shooting I'm referring to.
The NY Times reports in a story on the shooting that police reports indicated that officers performed CPR on the victim. But the video indicates otherwise.
And as noted upthread, the officer charged moves evidence and places it near the body.
It will come down to was the LEO's actions reasonable for the situation. Based on what has been seen so far, it doesn't appear to be reasonable. Add to that what is apparently a discrepancy between what happened and what the officers reported, and the charged officer better have a good attorney.
I’ve seen a couple of conflicting mentions about the Coast Guard service. An article on CNN states that the Scott’s brother said he served in the Coast Guard (but then it doesn’t an a direct quote from the brother stating that.) http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/08/us/south-carolina-who-was-walter-scott/
The original article that appeared in the local paper about the shooting stated that the officer, Slager, was former Coast Guard but didn’t mention any service history for Scott. http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20150406/PC16/150409558/1177/north-charleston-police-say-officer-who-fatally-shot-man-pulled-him-over-because-of-brake-light
Either way, the tone of that original article certainly places a different spin on the officer’s actions prior to release of the video.
Me too. He’ll be killed there
That "job" belongs to the taxpayers who pay their salary.
Well, it doesn’t so much endanger his life as it does his feeling of superiority. That’s important too, you know.
That won’t stop the race pimps.
Bert is just pulling legs on this thread. No FReeper is as damn stupid enough to believe this shooting was a justified use of deadly force. (Either by a cop or citizen.) It wasn’t. Not even close. The cop has been fired. He is facing murder charges. His first Att. quit him as soon as the vid surfaced. Bert be foolin’!
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