Yet another unarmed African-American man was shot dead by a white police officer in the U.S. over the weekend, adding to the long list of such shootings that have led to a spike in racial tensions across the country in recent months.
On this occasion, however, the officer in question, Michael Slager (33) of North Charleston, South Carolina, was on Tuesday charged with murder after a graphic eyewitness video, shot on a mobile telephone, surfaced and went viral.
The video showed Slager shooting Walter Scott (50), a Coast Guard veteran and father of four, in the back as the victim was running away from the officer, by which time the officer had also used a Taser gun.
Slager apparently fired eight rounds into Mr. Scott’s back, after which the video shows Mr. Scott falling to the ground, and then Slager can be seen walking over to the body, talking into his radio and shouting at the limp, motionless form on the ground: “Put your hands behind your back now, put your hands behind your back”.
The video shows Salger then placing Mr. Scott’s arms in handcuffs, and then moving away to pick up what appears to be the Taser from the ground, then he is seen walking back to the body and dropping the item that he picked up next to Mr. Scott’s body.
Outrage across the U.S. focused not only on the brutality of the killing and the racial undertones of the incident, but also raised questions about the lack of police body cameras in South Carolina and the fact that this left room for manipulation of evidence at the scene to frame victims.
According to officials at the U.S. Department of Justice the Federal Bureau of Investigation will work with the South Carolina’s State Law Enforcement Division, which typically investigates officer-involved shootings in South Carolina, and the state’s attorney general to examine any civil rights violations in Mr. Scott’s death.
The Scott family also planned to file a civil rights suit against Slager, the police department and the city, an attorney representing the family said.
At a press Charleston Mayor Keith Summey said to reporters that Slager had made a “bad decision,” and “When you’re wrong, you’re wrong.”
He added, “When you make a bad decision, don’t care if you’re behind the shield or a citizen on the street, you have to live with that decision.”
The killing comes in the wake of last year’s controversial shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, by a white police officer, and the choking death of Eric Garner, in New York City.
