Officials reviewing police officer’s dash cam footage
New video shows how events unfolded prior to Michael Slager’s fatal shooting of Walter Scott during a traffic stop in North Charleston, S.C.
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — The traffic stop starts like any other: an officer pulls over a motorist, walks up to the driver’s side window, and asks for license and registration.
What happened minutes later appears to occur without any obvious sign of provocation or conflict: The driver opens the door and runs, and the officer chases after him.
Video released Thursday from the dashboard of North Charleston police Officer Michael Thomas Slager’s cruiser captures the first moments when he and motorist Walter Scott meet, a strikingly benign encounter at its earliest stages. It changes in minutes as Mr. Scott takes off running, and the officer runs after him.
The video captures the moments leading up to a fatal shooting that has sparked outrage as the latest example of a white police officer killing an unarmed black man. The shooting itself was captured by an eyewitness on his iPhone and provided the impetus for the officer to be charged with murder and fired.
But questions had remained about how the traffic stop turned deadly. The dash cam video provides a more complete picture of their initial encounter.
The shooting happened Saturday, and the department and Officer Slager’s lawyer said the officer fired in self-defense during a scuffle over his department-issued Taser. Within days, the eyewitness video surfaced and immediately changed perceptions of what happened, leading the department to charge Officer Slager with murder and fire him from the force he’d worked on for five years.
The dash cam video shows Mr. Scott being pulled over in a used Mercedes-Benz he had purchased just days earlier. Police have said he was being stopped for a broken tail light. Officer Slager is seen walking toward the driver’s side window and heard asking for Mr. Scott’s license and registration. The officer then returns to his cruiser. Next, the video shows Mr. Scott starting to get out of the car, his right hand raised above his head, then he quickly gets back into the car and closes the door. Seconds later, he opens the door again and takes off running.
Within a city block or two — out of the dashboard camera’s view — Officer Slager catches up to him in an empty lot. A bystander noticed the confrontation and pushed record on his cell phone, capturing video that has outraged the nation: it shows Mr. Scott running away again, and Officer Slager firing eight shots at his back.
The former officer’s file includes a single excessive use-of-force complaint, from 2013: A man said Officer Slager used his stun gun against him without reason. But the officer was exonerated, and the case closed, even though witnesses said in interviews that investigators never followed up with them. Police say they are looking at that case again amid questions by the man Tased and eyewitnesses who said authorities never questioned them about it.
Both Officer Slager, 33, and Mr. Scott, 55, were U.S. Coast Guard veterans. Mr. Scott had been jailed repeatedly for failing to pay child support. But neither man had a record of violence. Officer Slager consistently earned positive reviews in his five years with the North Charleston Police.
The former officer’s new attorney, Andy Savage, said Thursday he is conducting an investigation. His client is being held without bond pending an Aug. 21 hearing on a murder charge that could put him in prison for 30 years to life if convicted.