A white South Carolina police officer has been fired from his job after being charged with murder for shooting an apparently unarmed black man in the back as he fled, but questions remained about some details of the killing that was filmed by a witness.
The shooting on Saturday in North Charleston, a town of about 100,000 people, nearly half of whom are black, was the latest death from police use of lethal force in the United States in the past year that has brought protesters out to decry racism and police brutality.
North Charleston Police Chief Eddie Driggers said at a news conference that he did not know whether officers performed CPR on the victim, 50-year-old Walter Scott, who ran away after being stopped by police for a broken brake light on his vehicle.
The video shows a brief scuffle between Scott and police officer Michael Slager, 33, before Scott runs. Slager is then seen taking aim with a handgun before shooting eight times at Scott’s back.
Scott was slumped facedown on grass and Slager is seen placing him in handcuffs and then walks back to a spot near where he opened fire. The video then shows him appearing to pick something up, return to Scott, and drop it next to him.
Driggers and North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey did not answer a question about the object.
«There are questions that I have in my mind that I can’t answer right now,» Driggers said. No other officers have been disciplined, officials said.
According to a police report, Slager told other officers Scott had taken his stun gun from him. At no point in the video, which does not show the initial contact between the men, does Scott appear to be armed.
Summey said that the full video had not been made available to him. He said there is additional footage from a patrol car camera.
The mayor said Slager had been fired from his job but the city would cover insurance for his family until his eight-months-pregnant wife gives birth.
Summey said the city’s police force will soon be equipped with body cameras.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald