Former North Charleston officer Michael Slager appeared in a Charleston court Wednesday to answer to a three-count federal indictment for the shooting of Walter Scott.
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Slager was charged with “deprivation of rights under the color of the law, use of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime and obstruction of justice”, CNN reported.
Scott referred to a cell phone video that came to light days after the April 4, 2015 shooting that called into question Slager’s initial account of the shooting.
The indictment claims Slager “knowingly and intentionally” misled the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division by falsely stating that he fired his.45 caliber pistol at Scott while Scott was coming forward with a Taser.
Slager is white and Scott was black, and the video of the shooting sparked national outrage and protests over the officer’s alleged racist conduct. He fired his weapon eight times, hitting Scott five times.
Video showed the two men talking, their words inaudible, before Scott took off running. I’ll never see him again. “This is historic”, Scott family attorney Chris Stewart said. “I think it is making a statement from the Justice Department angle that they are not going to sit idly by, while state prosecutions go on”.
An attorney for Scott’s family said, “This is history in so many ways”.
A release from the Justice Department said if convicted of the civil rights violation Slager could be sentenced to a maximum of life in prison and a $250,000 fine. If found guilty, Slager could be sentenced to a lifetime in prison.
Chris Stewart, an attorney for the Scott family, called it unbelievable that after all the cases over the past 20 years the federal government has chose to indict an officer.
In a statement Wednesday, Savage said Slager “believes that when all the facts can be presented in their complete form, the truth will be heard and at that time many can begin to heal”. Citing the length of defendant’s incarceration prior to his court date, Circuit Judge Clifton Newman, who oversaw the state hearing, ruled that Slager was entitled to the reconsideration of release before his trial on state charges. The exact date of his state trial is up in the air, as state prosecutors – who are also working on the delayed trial against the man accused of killing nine black parishioners in a Charleston church – have asked for it to be pushed back. “But I thank God that ‘the prayers of the righteous availeth much.'” she said, quoting the Bible.
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In October, the Charleston city council agreed to settle a lawsuit by Scott’s family for $6.5 million.
