These video grabs from a Dash Cam obtained yesterday courtesy of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) shows Slager talking with Walter Scott (in the car) during a traffic stop on Saturday in North Charleston, South Carolina. Scott is then seen running away.
AFP/North Charleston
Video released on Thursday has revealed new details in the death of a black man gunned down by a white police officer in South Carolina that led to a murder charge against the cop and prompted calls for change in US police forces.
Walter Scott, 50, was killed last Saturday in North Charleston as he was running from an officer who pulled his gun and fired eight shots, five of which hit him.
A bystander caught the incident on camera and the officer, Michael Slager, 33, was later charged with murder and fired.
Dash cam footage from Slager’s police vehicle released on Thursday showed Scott pulling off the road in a black Mercedes and Slager approaching the vehicle that also appears to hold another passenger.
Slager asks for Scott’s car registration, which Scott says he cannot produce because he says he is buying the car from someone else who still has the paperwork.
Then the routine-looking stop becomes unusual as Scott looks out of the car after Slager returns to his vehicle, and flees.
The rest of the chase and shooting cannot be seen from the police car video.
Scott’s brother, Anthony Scott, demanded changes in police forces after his sibling’s death.
“There has to be accountability for officers, and they have to think twice about firing their firearms and shooting down people,” he told AFP on Thursday. “They have to think about those things before taking the life of someone senselessly, senselessly gunning down a person.”
Walter Scott’s father has said his son may have been running from the officer because he owed child support and did not want to go to jail.
South Carolina police said they were suspicious of the shooting from the beginning because of “inconsistencies” in Slager’s initial reporting of events and multiple gunshot wounds in Scott’s back.
“We believed early on that there was something not right about what happened in that encounter,” South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) chief Mark Keel said in a statement on Thursday.
“The cell phone video shot by a bystander confirmed our initial suspicions,” he said.
North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey said the police department would buy body cameras for officers to wear to record interactions with the public.
A lawyer for the Scott family said he supported that move because both officers and citizens could use the video to clarify what happened in disputed circumstances.
There were peaceful protests in North Charleston on Wednesday, and a candlelight vigil was held for Scott, a father of four, in the evening. His funeral is scheduled to take place today.
Activists called for an emergency city council session, demanding that a citizens’ review board be formed.
“Far from one isolated incident and ‘one bad apple’, we are witnessing symptoms of a policing system that is unaccountable to the community it is supposed to serve and protect,” the group Black Lives Matter CHS said in a statement.
The president of the Charleston branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, Dot Scott, said the fact that Slager was charged and fired swiftly was the “exception rather than the rule”.
She said video evidence was crucial in the case.
“Would there have been an indictment? Or would there have been a cursory investigation where Mr Scott was painted as a criminal, where the officer’s version of what happened would have been accepted as truth, and where there would have been no murder charge?” she said.
An online fundraising campaign was launched to support Slager, who has two stepchildren and whose wife is expecting another child.
A fund on Indiegogo raised more than $1,200 in its first day, with 44 people contributing and said it aimed to reach $5,000.
“Although he may have made missteps in judgment he was protecting the community ... please help in any way you can. He has served five years with the department without being disciplined,” the page said.
Video catches US deputies beating suspect in horse pursuit
Deputy sheriffs in southern California were under investigation yesterday after a TV news helicopter caught them on video kicking and beating a suspect who was fleeing on horseback.
Francis Jared Pusok, 30, a white male with a criminal record, was kicked 13 times, punched 37 times and struck four times with batons, according to KNBC television in Los Angeles.
“I’m disturbed by what I see in the video,” San Bernardino County sheriff John McMahon told the station, whose chopper hovered over the scene.
He ordered an internal investigation into the incident, which occurred in desert scrub in Apple Valley, 80 miles (130km) from Los Angeles.
It came five days after a white police officer in the South Carolina city of North Charleston was caught on video gunning down a fleeing African American suspect (see accompanying story).
The officer, Michael Slager, has since been charged with the murder of Walter Scott, 50, and fired from the force, in the latest fatal confrontation in the United States between white police officers and unarmed black suspects.
Pusok was being served a warrant related to an identity theft investigation when he first fled on foot, then stole a horse, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.
From the KNBC video, it appeared Pusok was zapped with a Taser when he fell off the horse, after which up to 11 deputies began striking him.
He remained on the ground for 45 minutes, getting no medical attention before he was taken to hospital, the television station reported.
The sheriff’s department acknowledged that “use of force occurred” after the Taser proved ineffective due to “loose clothing” that Pusok was wearing.
Three deputies also got medical treatment – two for dehydration and a third who got kicked by the horse, which itself sustained “numerous injuries”.
Court records show Pusok had prior convictions for resisting arrest, animal cruelty, disturbing the peace, attempted robbery and failure to prove evidence of financial responsibility, KNBC said.
