A former SC police officer has been indicted in United States court on a civil rights violation and a charge of lying to investigators after he fatally shot a black man following a traffic stop in SC a year ago.
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A bystander captured cell phone video of Slager shooting Scott eight times in the back as he tried to flee on foot. A grand jury in Charleston on Monday, June 8, 2015, affirmed the state of South Carolina’s murder charge against Slager, who is accused of shooting an unarmed black man trying to run from a traffic stop.
Slager is now on house arrest as he awaits a murder trial in state court. He was also indicted on charges of misleading investigators (he told them Scott was approaching him with a Taser) and using a firearm in a violent crime.
A conviction on the civil rights charge, the most serious count Slager faces, carries up to life imprisonment but no minimum punishment.
The indictment states that Slager “shot Walter Scott without legal justification, willfully depriving him of the right, secured and protected by the Constitution and laws of the United States, to be free from the use of unreasonable force by a law enforcement officer”.
The indictment continues, “In truth and in fact, as defendant Michael Slager then well knew, he (Slager) repeatedly fired his weapon at Scott when Scott was running away from him”.
The full indictment is available here, via NPR.
Andy Savage, a lawyer for Slager, did not immediately comment on the federal case. At some point, Slager said that he feared for his life and shot and killed Scott. That officer, Michael Slager, has now been indicted by a federal grand jury. But a federal grand jury says the now ex-officer violently took away Scott’s rights and mislead investigators.
Scott’s heartbroken mother addressed the federal charges today and expressed her belief that justice will be served for her son. The officer now faces murder charges. The chief prosecutor in the Charleston area is also heading up the death penalty case against Dylann Roof, the white man charged with gunning down nine people during Bible study at a historic black church last summer.
Former police officer Michael Slager walks to the defense table bond hearing in Charleston, South Carolina on September 10, 2015. The brother of Walter Scott spoke in court but did not oppose the set-up of the bond.
Family attorney Chris Stewart says he’s proud of the federal government for bringing the charges.
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Video footage filmed from the dashcam of Mr Slager’s auto showed what looked like a routine traffic stop – until Mr Scott got out of the vehicle with the police officer in pursuit.
