Charged with murder: White South Carolina cop shot unarmed black man FIVE TIMES in the back, handcuffed the body and didn't deliver CPR while 'planting weapon at his side' - and claimed he feared for HIS life
- Father-of-four Walter Scott, 50, shot dead while running away from police officer Michael Slager who opened fire in Charleston, South Carolina on Saturday morning
- Incendiary video released after the shooting showed Scott, a former coast guard, falling face-down on ground after eight shots were fired at his back
- Slager, 33, claims he 'felt threatened' after Scott wrestled Taser from him - but the video shows Slager 'picking up Taser and placing it next to Scott's body'
- Family attorney said: 'This was a cop who felt like he could get away with just shooting anybody that many times in the back. He just casually shot a man that many times in the back'
- Protest planned at North Charleston City Hall on Wednesday morning as local leaders appealed for calm
This is the moment a white police officer gunned down a fleeing, unarmed black man by firing eight shots at his back then handcuffed his lifeless body before appearing to plant a Taser gun at his side.
Patrolman Michael Slager, 33, opened fire on father-of-four Walter Scott, 50, in North Charleston, South Carolina, on Saturday morning after reportedly stopping him over a broken tail light.
Slager was charged with murder on Tuesday and could face the death penalty after the incendiary footage emerged. The officer had previously defended his actions, saying he feared for his life after Scott wrestled his Taser from him during a scuffle.
However, the footage showed Scott getting around 15 to 20 feet away before Slager opened fire with seven shots in quick succession followed by an eighth. The 50-year-old U.S. Coast Guard veteran was hit five times.
Slager then approached where Scott was lying to handcuff his lifeless body before jogging back to where he had fired the shots to pick up an object from the ground - possibly the Taser.
The officer then returned to Scott where a second officer was on the scene. Slager can be seen on video tape appearing to drop an object next to the victim's body.
The footage also contradicted police claims that officers performed CPR on the suspect.
The parents of Walter Scott told the Today show on Wednesday that they wanted justice for their son.
'It would have never come to light. They would have swept it under the rug, like they did with so many others,' Walter Scott Sr said.
Mr Scott Sr added: 'The way he [Slager] was shooting that gun, it looked like he was trying to kill a deer... I don't know whether it was racial, or it was something wrong with his head.'
An outraged representative of Scott's family added: 'This was a cop who felt like he could get away with just shooting anybody that many times in the back.'
The killing comes at a time of mounting unrest over police use of force - particularly against black men - after violent protests erupted over the killing of unarmed teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri last summer.
Justice Department spokeswoman Dena Iverson said the FBI would also investigate the shooting.
The footage began rolling in a vacant lot apparently moments after Slager fired his Taser.
Slager claimed he tried to Taser the victim during the scuffle, but said Scott managed to wrest the stun gun away, prompting him to draw his pistol.
At that point, the officer said he fired at Scott several times, saying he 'felt threatened' by the Coast Guard veteran.
At no point in the video, which does not show the initial contact between the men, does Scott appear to be armed.
Scott collapsed face-down on a patch of grass. Slager then walked over, shouted at him to put his hands behind his back, then handcuffed him.
Footage then appeared to show Slager jogging back to the point where the Taser fell to the ground, bringing it over to Scott's body around 30 feet away and dropping it next to him.
According to police reports, officers performed CPR on Scott.
But video showed that Scott remained face down on the floor for several minutes without being given any medical attention.
It was only after two-and-a-half minutes that Slager was seen placing his hand on Scott's neck in an apparent attempt to check his pulse.
A black law enforcement colleague then arrived and put on blue medical gloves before handling the body, but was not seen giving any medical assistance.
The two cops were later joined by a third officer, who also did not appear to tend to the victim.
As soon as emergency responders arrived, they pronounced Scott dead at the scene.
Within hours of the footage, acquired by the Charleston Post and Courier, emerging on Tuesday, authorities filed the murder charges and arrested Slager.
The cop faces up to life in prison or the death penalty if convicted.
Keith Summey, the mayor of North Charleston, termed the killing a 'bad decision' at a press conference announcing the charges.
He said: 'When you're wrong, you're wrong. When you make a bad decision, don't care if you're behind the shield or a citizen on the street, you have to live with that decision.'
On Monday, an attorney for the officer had issued a statement putting across Slager's version of events.
He said the officer 'felt threatened and reached for his department-issued firearm and fired his weapon'.
The statement, reported by the The Post and Courier, added: 'Officer Slager believes he followed all the proper procedures and policies of the North Charleston Police Department'.
In the wake of the murder charges, the lawyer no longer represents him.
A statement initially issued by Slager said that he turned to his gun after Scott wrested the Taser away from him. Slager claimed he shot Scott because he 'felt threatened' by him.
Under South Carolina law, Slager could be eligible for the death penalty if convicted of murder.
A lawyer for the family on Tuesday said that the footage shows Slager 'casually' taking Scott's life, and acting as if there would be no repercussions.
Attorney L. Chris Stewart said: 'This was a cop who felt like he could get away with just shooting anybody that many times in the back. He just casually shot a man that many times in the back.'
He added: 'At the moment he turned and ran and was not a threat to anybody else that officer was completely unjustified.'
Scott may have tried to run from the officer because he owed child support, which can get someone sent to jail in South Carolina until they pay it back, Stewart said.
He had four children, was engaged and had been honorably discharged from the U.S. Coast Guard.
Stewart said the family would also pursue civil charges against Slager, saying they were angry at the way the police department sought to defend the police officer until the video emerged.
He also said that without the video, and the 'hero' who recorded it, there would have been no murder charges.
He told TV crews: 'What happened today doesn't happen all the time - what if there was no video? What if there was no witness - or hero - to come forward?
'The initial reports stated something totally different - the officer said Mr Scott attacked him and tried to use his Taser on him. But somebody was watching.'
Scott's brother, Anthony, spoke after his brother's death. He said Walter had a fiancée, two siblings and four children.
He told WCIV: 'My brother is a kind and sweet person. He talked to everybody, knew all our family members by name, anybody that came in touch with Walter loved him.'
'He loved the [Dallas] Cowboys. We had planned to go to go see them play but I guess that won't happen now.'
At a press conference on Tuesday evening, Anthony Scott spoke out again.
He said: 'From the beginning, all we wanted was the truth... we can't get my brother back and my family is in deep mourning, but the process of justice has been served.
He later added: 'I don't wanna see anyone get shot down the way that my brother got shot down.
'I asked that everyone continue to pray for my family, that we get through this - because we need prayer.'
Meanwhile, the person who filmed the video was speaking with investigators and will come forward publicly 'at some point,' the family attorney said.
Activists planned to protest at North Charleston City Hall on Wednesday at 9.30am, but civil rights leaders have called for calm, with many praising the courage of the witness who filmed the killing for coming forward.
'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.
The shooting took place in North Charleston, which is home to about 100,000 people, nearly half of whom are black, according to U.S. Census data from 2010.
By contrast, only about 18 per cent of its police department's roughly 340 officers are black, the local Post and Courier newspaper reported last year.
According to the Post and Courier, Scott had a warrant out for his arrest from family court at the time of his death.
He has been arrested around ten times, mostly for contempt of court charges for failing to pay child support, included one accusation of a violation stemming from an assault and battery charge in 1987, the paper reported.
Slager, also formerly a member of the Coast Guard, had not previously been disciplined by the department, the Post and Courier said.
He has two stepchildren and a pregnant wife.
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.
The shooting occurred at a time of heightened scrutiny over police officer shootings, particularly those that involve white officers and unarmed black suspects.
A grand jury declined to indict white Ferguson officer Darren Wilson over the fatal shooting of Brown last August, sparking nationwide protests.
Outgoing federal Attorney General Eric Holder has threatened Ferguson with a lawsuit if it fails to fulfill a set of recommendations to overhaul its law enforcement and municipal court system.
Thousands also protested in the streets last year after the death of 43-year-old Eric Garner, who gasped 'I can't breathe' as police arrested him for allegedly selling loose, untaxed cigarettes.
In a separate case in South Carolina, a white police officer who shot a 68-year-old black man dead last year in his driveway was charged yesterday with discharging a gun into an occupied vehicle.
A prosecutor previously tried to indict North Augusta officer Justin Craven on a manslaughter charge in the February 2014 death of Ernest Satterwhite.
But a grand jury instead chose misconduct in office, which is a far lesser charge.
Craven chased Satterwhite for nine miles beyond city limits to the man's driveway in Edgefield County.
After Satterwhite parked, the officer repeatedly fired through the driver-side door, prosecutors said.
The 25-year-old officer faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of the gun charge.
North Charleston is South Carolina's third-largest city and for years battled back from an economic slump caused by the closing of the Charleston Naval Base on the city's waterfront in the mid-1990s.
But now the city has bounced back in a big way, largely in part to the huge investment by Boeing.
The aircraft manufacturer has a 787 aircraft manufacturing plant in the city and employs about 7,500 people in South Carolina, most of them in North Charleston.
Banned
