Graphic shooting video shocks Americans
NEW YORK — A new video from South Carolina has shocked Americans with its depiction of a fleeing, unarmed black man being shot in the back by a white policeman. The image was so vivid that a murder charge came swiftly.
Graphic videos have surfaced previously that kindled outrage over police use of force: from the Rodney King beating in Los Angeles a generation ago to last year’s chokehold death in New York City. Yet what was seen in stark detail in the South Carolina video could have an even more profound impact.
It has intensified a national discussion about police treatment of African-Americans and the use of body cameras by police officers.
And the swift, forceful response contrasted sharply with how events unfolded after the King beating and the chokehold death of Eric Garner in New York City last July.
“I have watched the video and I was sickened by what I saw,” Eddie Driggers, the North Charleston police chief, said Wednesday.
The officer who fired the eight shots, Patrolman Michael Thomas Slager, has been fired and charged with killing 50-year-old Walter Lamer Scott after a routine traffic stop.
Key questions remained about the 3-minute video. Are there gaps in its portrayal of the incident? How did the video make its way to the media and then to local authorities?
The video, provided to the dead man’s family and lawyer by the person who shot the footage, shows Slager firing at Scott as he runs away. Scott falls after the eighth shot.
Scott’s father, Walter Scott Sr., said the policeman “looked like he was trying to kill a deer running through the woods.”
The video begins after Scott has left his car. Slager follows him, reaching at the man with an object that appears to be a Taser stun gun. As Scott pulls away, the object falls to the ground, and Slager pulls out his handgun as Scott runs away.
There is no indication Scott was ordered to halt or surrender.