Activists planned to protest in South Carolina on Wednesday after a white police officer was caught on video fatally shooting a 50-year-old African American man in the back as he ran away following a traffic stop.
The officer has been charged with murder and the FBI and US Justice Department are investigating the shooting. Civil rights leaders have called for calm and many people praised the courage of the witness who filmed the killing and gave the video to the victim’s family.
“This is what happens ... when people are willing to step up and do the right thing for the right reasons,” State Representative Justin Bamber told reporters late on Tuesday.
Chris Stewart, an attorney for the victim’s family, said the incident is bigger than race.
It goes to power itself. This was a cop who felt like he could just get away with shooting someone that many times in the back. It speaks to the value of human life.
– Chris Stewart, Lawyer to Victim’s Family
The shooting took place on Saturday morning after 33-year-old officer Michael Slager, who joined the department in 2009, stopped Walter Scott for a broken brake light, police said.
According to a police report, Slager told other officers Scott had taken his stun gun from him. At no point in the video does Scott appear to be armed, but the video does not show the initial contact between the two men.
Family Plans Lawsuit
Slager is being held without bond on a murder charge that could carry the death penalty, online court records show. The victim’s family plans to file a lawsuit against Slager, the department and the city alleging that his civil rights were violated, Stewart said.
Slager, also formerly a member of the Coast Guard, had not previously been disciplined by the department, a local newspaper Post and Courier said. The paper reported that in 2013 a man accused him of shooting him with a stun gun without cause, but that Slager was cleared of wrongdoing by an internal police investigation.
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