Cop shoots a guy multiple times .... and in the back no less. Unreal. In video provided to The New York Times, a police officer in North Charleston, S.C., is seen shooting an apparently unarmed man after a scuffle following a traffic stop. Publish Date April 7, 2015. WASHINGTON — A white police officer in North Charleston, S.C., was charged with murder on Tuesday after a video surfaced showing him shooting in the back and killing an apparently unarmed black man while the man ran away. The officer, Michael T. Slager, 33, said he had feared for his life because the man had taken his stun gun in a scuffle after a traffic stop on Saturday. A video, however, shows the officer firing eight times as the man, Walter L. Scott, 50, fled. The North Charleston mayor announced the state charges at a news conference Tuesday evening. The shooting came on the heels of high-profile instances of police officers’ using lethal force in New York, Cleveland, Ferguson, Mo., and elsewhere. The deaths have set off a national debate over whether the police are too quick to use force, particularly in cases involving black men. Taser, an electronic stun gun, but it did not stop Mr. Scott, according to police reports. Moments after the struggle, Officer Slager reported on his radio: “Shots fired and the subject is down. He took my Taser,” according to police reports. But the video, which was taken by a bystander and provided to The New York Times by the Scott family’s lawyer, presents a different account. The video begins in the vacant lot, apparently moments after Officer Slager fired his Taser. Wires, which carry the electrical current from the stun gun, appear to be extending from Mr. Scott’s body as the two men tussle and Mr. Scott turns to run. Something — it is not clear whether it is the stun gun — is either tossed or knocked to the ground behind the two men, and Officer Slager draws his gun, the video shows. When the officer fires, Mr. Scott appears to be 15 to 20 feet away and fleeing. He falls after the last of eight shots. The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the state’s criminal investigative body, has begun an inquiry into the shooting. The F.B.I. and the Justice Department, which has opened a string of civil rights investigations into police departments under Mr. Holder, is also investigating. The Supreme Court has held that an officer may use deadly force against a fleeing suspect only when there is probable cause that the suspect “poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others.” Officer Slager served in the Coast Guard before joining the force five years ago, his lawyer said. The police chief of North Charleston did not return repeated calls. Because police departments are not required to release data on how often officers use force, it was not immediately clear how often police shootings occurred in North Charleston, a working-class community adjacent to the tourist destination of Charleston. For several minutes after the shooting, Walter L. Scott remained face down with his hands He doesn’t have some type of big violent past or arrest record,” said Chris Stewart, a lawyer for Mr. Scott’s family. “He had a job; he was engaged. He had back child support and didn’t want to go to jail for back child support.” Mr. Stewart said the coroner had told him that Mr. Scott was struck five times — three times in the back, once in the upper buttocks and once in the ear — with at least one bullet entering his heart. It is not clear whether Mr. Scott died immediately. (The coroner’s office declined to make the report available to The Times.) Police reports say that officers performed CPR and delivered first aid to Mr. Scott. The video shows that for several minutes after the shooting, Mr. Scott remained face down with his hands cuffed behind his back. A second officer arrives, puts on blue medical gloves and attends to Mr. Scott, but is not shown performing CPR. As sirens wail in the background, a third officer later arrives, apparently with a medical kit, but is also not seen performing CPR. The debate over police use of force has been propelled in part by videos like the one in South Carolina. In January, prosecutors in Albuquerque charged two police officers with murder for shooting a homeless man in a confrontation that was captured by an officer’s body camera. Federal prosecutors are investigating the death of Eric Garner, who died last year in Staten Island after a police officer put him in a chokehold, an episode that a bystander captured on video. A video taken in Cleveland shows the police shooting a 12-year-old boy, Tamir Rice, who was carrying a fake gun in a park. A White House policing panel recommended that police departments put more video cameras on their officers. Mr. Scott’s brother said his mother had called him on Saturday, telling him that his brother had been shot by a Taser after a traffic stop. “You may need to go over there and see what’s going on,” he said his mother told him. When he arrived at the scene of the shooting, officers told him that his brother was dead, but he said they had no explanation for why. “This just doesn’t sound right,” he said in an interview. “How do you lose your life at a traffic stop?” Anthony Scott said he last saw his brother three weeks ago at a family oyster roast. “We hadn’t hung out like that in such a long time,” Mr. Scott said. “He kept on saying over and over again how great it was.” At the roast, Mr. Scott got to do two of the things he enjoyed most: tell jokes and dance. When one of Mr. Scott’s favorite songs was played, he got excited. “He jumped up and said, ‘That’s my song,’ and he danced like never before,” his brother said.
That cop is so busted. Shooting the guy in the back, planting evidence, all on video. Going to take a pretty clever DA to present that to a grand jury in such a way as to not return an indictment.
Worked well for Eric Garner in NY. That guy that was subjected to an illegal choke-hold. Live on camera. Camera's won't do shit, people will still be victims of police brutality. Even with social media, the # of incidents have increased this year.
This is fucked up.... the other thing is it pisses me off that the very first fucking sentence.... "a white cop" why does it matter? The cop looks to be a piece of shit regardless of color. Why try and stir the seeds of racism and hate?
Garner didn't comply and that wasn't a choke hold. It was NOTHING like the case here. You can say cameras won't change anything but the facts show otherwise. http://www.policefoundation.org/content/body-worn-camera
While, I do agree with your notion of the cop being a POS regardless of color - here are some statistics you may or may not be surprised about. If you choose to believe the statistics or not, that would be on you to decide. I believe it. This would answer the question, "why does it matter"
it was a choke-hold, I am assuming this because you saw that the cop said it wasn't a choke-hold? No man deserves to die because he was selling cigarettes on the street, I don't think you can justify the man being killed. he didn't try and fight anyone and he wasn't a threat. Looks to be one to me. Camera's aren't changing anything, the # of deaths are increasing it appears to me. I don't want to make this topic about Eric Gardner, I am just saying camera's won't change anything IMO. People will still die of police brutality.
what does that chart tell us exactly? the video looks bad and it may be just as we saw it but I hate the rush to judgment. let the facts come out, we saw in some of those other cases how after the facts came out shootings were justified. that doesn't look like it will happen this time but we don't know any of the facts leading up to this and that chart tells us nothing w/o context(please don't talk about stats and other nonsense pertaining to sports arguments- this is an actually serious topic so please lets treat it as one).
it tells you everything you need to know. Again, I don't want to make this strictly about race, because EVERY race is a victim of police brutality. I do believe blacks are a more of a target, wherever that be because of stereotypes, prior history or location all play a role. The graph also tell us that there is a huge spike in police killings last month. If you compare those #s to places like the UK, it's insane how many die here. btw, don't give me that stupid bullshit stats w/out context ploy.
are you saying all 36 of those people didn't deserve to be shot? how would we know looking at that chart? it doesn't give us specifics. someone like Michael Brown was wrong even though he is a hero now b/c we rushed to judgment- he deserved to get shot. w/o knowing specifics we don't know if these other shootings were justified(or even true- just b/c someone puts together a nice looking chart doesn't make it accurate)
Then shut the fuck up about it. He didn't fucking die for selling ciggs. That's a retarded statement. Stop.
Do your research, you can find plenty of documentation in regards to killings online. even so, you cannot justify killing someone for these little acts. Also, Brown may have done something wrong, even so I never mentioned him in any discussion. For every Mike Brown that has done something wrong is it possible that there are guys like Travyon Martin and this guy that was shot yesterday? Looks pretty accurate to me. you should look online and find the answers yourself, it's everywhere, stories of innocent people dying by the hands of cops. You are the one that said cameras are helping. Now that's a retarded statement. Why did he die then? Let me guess, he was a beast a total nuisance to society. Yeah, let's put him down for good. Maybe you should be the one that should shut the fuck up. I disagree w/ your opinion that's it. No need to get all hot headed because you are wrong. If you have a problem, you can easily put me on ignore I could give a fuck less.
Lol...It isn't a matter of "believing" the statistics. I'm sure they are factual. It is a matter of whether they are meaningful or not. Somebody made a sensational display of cherrypicked statistics to try to make a point that this is getting worse. For example, am I really expected to believe that a 71% jump in black deaths by police means that this problem magically got 71% worse or that we are 71% more racist? Lol. Or could it be that maybe the numbers were on the low end the month before and on the high end in March? The graph on the bottom claims to prove that police violence is increasing when August 2014 is higher than March 2015. I'm surprised they even left August on there. Not to mention way too small of sample size. I hate these types of things that are tailor made for morons on facebook and twitter. People don't like to do any kind of research or reading and this makes it easier to perpetuate misleading information. There is enough of a problem without exaggerating or insinuating that all black deaths by police are unjustified
Martin wasn't a police issue and it was proven he was in the wrong but the myth out there is he was some sweet little unarmed teen w/ skittles. the chart is just a chart, w/o knowing specifics it doesn't help us. all it does is divide us, every case could have been justified- we don't know.
You turned this into a Garner thing by bringing it up. If the fat fuck would have simply complied and submitted to the officers they never would have laid a hand on him. Saying he was killed for selling ciggs is dishonest, incorrect and retarded. His death was the unfortunate result of him not complying and a pre-existing medical condition. This case that the thread is actually about is a clear cut case of murder by a police officer that has NOTHING to do with Garner. I provided a link to a detailed study that showed a drastic reduction in use of force incidents when cops were wearing body camera's. You provided nothing other than an ignorant opinion based on a single incident where force was justified.
If you don't care about the chart, then don't look at it. I like to research on these things as well and hear the stories about police brutality. That chart was just a quick statistics on what is going on. If you want to complain about it, go talk to the person that made the chart.
Ignorant is the following 2 things: 1. Saying it wasn't a choke-hold because the cop that pulled the move said so [even with picture proof] 2. Installing cameras on cops is stopping police brutality. You keep believing that, that's fine. That link you provided me was research in 2013, we are talking about killings in March of 2015. That's fine you can go ahead and justify the killings. Have a good day.
Lol are you kidding me? I guess my response should be "If you don't care about my post then don't respond to it" but I'm not afraid to back up my well thought out opinions and if I am going to post something I'm going to own up to it and defend it. You posted it, I pointed out how it is misleading. It is pretty standard for forum debate
