US ex-policeman indicted in black man’s killing case

Video from the dashboard camera in Slager’s police cruiser recorded a respectful exchange between the two men before the officer returned to his patrol car. A few minutes later, after being told by Slager to stay in the Mercedes, Scott emerged from his car and ran off, apparently unarmed.

The subsequent cell phone video showed the men in a brief tussle before Scott ran off again, Slager fired his handgun eight times and Scott slumped into the grass. There was a gap between the two videos. Before Slager’s arrest, he said through an attorney that he feared for his life when he shot Scott.

The ex-officer’s current attorney, Andrew Savage III, said on Monday his legal team was still waiting to receive the state’s investigative materials in the case.

“Until we have an opportunity to fully evaluate the state’s case and to compare it with our own investigation we will not be commenting on any aspect of the case,” he said. Meanwhile, authorities on Monday released a video of a black Muslim man shot dead by police and the FBI in Boston, and accused of planning to behead police officers.

The grainy video was filmed by a surveillance camera fixed to a cafe about 50 yards from the confrontation with Usaamah Rahim, a 26-year-old security guard, in a parking lot.

Police say Rahim was killed after he refused multiple demands to drop a military-style knife.

Those demands are not audible, nor is the weapon clearly visible on the video.

The footage shows Rahim walking towards a bus stop, officers approaching him, then retreating and then Rahim falling to the ground.

District Attorney Daniel Conley said he was releasing the video to clamp down on “rumours and bad information” as he investigates whether Rahim’s killing was lawful. It was just one piece of evidence among many, he said.

Rahim’s family, who initially claimed he was shot in the back at a bus stop, was shown the footage last week before his funeral.

“This unravelled very quickly. I think they made the right call,” Boston Police Commissioner William Evans told reporters Monday. Court papers filed last week accused Rahim of buying three military-style knives from Amazon and deciding to “go after” the “boys in blue” because they were “the easiest target.”

An alleged associate, David Wright, 25, has been charged with conspiring to obstruct a federal investigation.

Court papers said Rahim had been “planning to engage in a violent attack in the United States” since May 26 -- little over a week before his death.