Murder indictment for cop who fatally shot fleeing black man

Associated Press

CHARLESTON, S.C.

It didn’t take long for a grand jury in South Carolina to indict a white former city policeman on a murder charge in the shooting death of a black man who tried to flee from a traffic stop.

State investigators presented the case against former North Charleston officer Michael Slager to a Charleston County grand jury Monday, and prosecutor Scarlett Wilson announced the indictment a few hours later.

A bystander’s cellphone video shows Slager firing eight times as 50-year-old Walter Scott tried to run away April 4. The killing enflamed a national debate about how black people are treated by white police officers.

But it caused no unrest in North Charleston, where community leaders and Scott’s family praised the government’s swift response. Slager was charged with murder by state law-enforcement agents and fired from the police force immediately after Scott’s family released the video.

The indictment of Slager is the fourth in less than six months in which a grand jury in South Carolina has agreed that white officers should stand trial in the shootings of black men.

Wilson called reporters to her office to announce the indictment, and made very few comments.

Asked about the importance of the cellphone video of Scott’s death, she acknowledged that it’s helpful to have evidence that “depicts the crime, and we aren’t having to rely just on people’s perceptions.”

That said, “just because you have video in a case doesn’t mean it’s the be-all and end-all and the case is over,” she said. “The jury will be able to make up their own mind after seeing the video and hearing the testimony.”

Slager, 33, faces 30 years to life without parole if convicted. Wilson said the death penalty doesn’t apply because there are no aggravating circumstances such as robbery or kidnapping.