Former South Carolina police officer Michael Slager is facing civil rights charges, according to a federal indictment that was unsealed on Wednesday, Fox News reported.
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Mr Slager, 34, was arrested and charged with murder three days after video of the incident emerged.
Scott, 50, was shot five times from behind in April 2015, after Slager had pulled him over for having a broken tail light.
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.
Mr Slager “shot Walter Scott without legal justification, wilfully depriving him of the right, secured and protected by the Constitution of the United States, to be free from the use of unreasonable force by a law enforcement officer”, read the indictment filed in US District Court in Charleston.
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.
The AP left a message with Slager’s attorney seeking comment.
Slager is to appear before a judge in Charleston later Wednesday for an initial appearance on the federal charges.
Slager, who was sacked from the police force after the incident, was held in solitary confinement until January, when he was released on half a million dollars bail and put under house arrest.
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Wilson says she won’t be able to try the case starting in October because she needs then to prepare for another trial, that of Dylann Roof in the Charleston church mass shooting.
