Killing of Walter Scott

• Walter Lamar Scott was a 50-year-old An arrest warrant had been issued after a , 2013, court hearing over missed child support payments, for which he had been jailed three times earlier. Scott had served two years in the U.S. Coast Guard before being given a general discharge in 1986 for a drug-related offense. • Michael Thomas Slager, 33 years old at the time of the incident, served in the North Charleston Police Department (NCPD) for five years and five months prior to the shooting. Before becoming a police officer, he served in the U.S. Coast Guard. Slager was named in a second tasing-without-cause complaint following an August 2014 police stop. A complaint filed in January 2015 resulted in Slager being cited for failing to file a report. ==Killing==

At , , 2015, in the parking lot of an auto parts store at 1945 Remount Road, Scott was driving a 1991 Mercedes, and, according to his brother, was headed to the auto parts store when he was stopped. The video from Slager's dashcam shows him approaching Scott's car, speaking to Scott, and then returning to his patrol car. Scott exited his car and fled with Slager giving chase on foot. Slager pursued Scott into a lot behind a pawn shop at 5654 Rivers Avenue, and the two became involved in a physical altercation. At some point before or during the struggle, Slager fired his Taser, hitting Scott. Immediately following the shooting, Slager radioed a dispatcher, stating, "Shots fired and the subject is down. He grabbed my Taser." When Slager fired his gun, Scott was approximately away and fleeing. A passenger in Scott's car, reported to be a male co-worker and friend, was later placed in the back of a police vehicle and briefly detained. Tormos testified that Scott did not test positive for alcohol. At first Santana did not share the video out of fear of retribution, but he became angered when the police report differed from his view of the events. In an interview on MSNBC, Santana said, "I felt that my life, with this information, might be in danger. I thought about erasing the video and just getting out of the community, you know Charleston, and living some place else." The video was subsequently shared with Scott's family through an activist of Black Lives Matter, and later with the news media. Santana said that after a struggle in which Slager deployed his Taser, Scott was "just trying to get away from the Taser," and that before he started recording, he observed that Slager "had control of the situation". In an interview on The Today Show, Santana said Scott "never grabbed the Taser of the police. He never got the Taser." After Scott was shot and had dropped to the ground, Slager approached him, repeatedly instructed him to place his hands behind his back, and handcuffed him, leaving him face down on the ground. Although police reports stated that officers performed CPR on Scott, no such action is visible on the video. The video shows that Slager ran back toward where the initial scuffle occurred and picked something up off the ground. Moments later, he dropped the object, possibly the Taser, beside Scott's body. Another officer, Clarence W. Habersham Jr., is seen in the video; he puts on medical gloves and appears to examine Scott. ==Aftermath==

Critics, such as the Reverend Al Sharpton and the predominantly African-American National Bar Association, called for the prosecution of Clarence Habersham, the second officer seen in the video, alleging an attempted cover-up and questioning "whether Habersham omitted significant information from his report." Critics also questioned Habersham's statement in his report that he "attempted to render aid to the victim by applying pressure to the gunshot wounds," saying that the videotape shows little attempt to aid Scott after the shooting. Slager's original lawyer, David Aylor, withdrew as counsel within hours of the release of the video; he did not publicly give a reason for his withdrawal, citing attorney–client privilege. In March 2016, North Charleston Police Department Assistant Chief of Police Reggie Burgess offered a public apology for the killing. On , the North Charleston city manager announced that the NCPD had fired Slager but would continue to pay for his health insurance because his wife was pregnant. The town's mayor, Keith Summey, said they had ordered an additional 150 body cameras, enough that one could be worn by every police officer. Scott's funeral took place on , at the W.O.R.D. Ministries Christian Center in Summerville, about 20 miles from North Charleston. Scott's killing further fueled a national conversation around race and policing. It has been connected to similar controversial police shootings of black men in Missouri, New York, and elsewhere. The Black Lives Matter movement protested Scott's death. A bill in the South Carolina state house, designed to equip more police officers with body cameras, was renamed for Scott. The Senate set aside to fund it, enough to buy 2,000 cameras for South Carolina officers. In May 2016, a short documentary film about the shooting called Frame 394 was released by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The documentary is about Daniel Voshart, a Canadian cinematographer and image stabilization specialist, who claims to have discovered evidence in frame 394 of the shooting video "that challenged the accepted narrative of what transpired between Slager and Scott"; Investigation Separate investigations were conducted by the FBI, the U.S. Attorney in South Carolina, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED). An autopsy was performed by the Charleston County coroner on April 4, 2015, which showed that Scott had been shot in the back multiple times. The coroner ruled the death a homicide. Prosecution of Slager After the police department reviewed the video, On , a South Carolina grand jury indicted Slager on the murder charge. The murder charge was the only charge presented to the grand jury. On , 2016, after being held without bail for almost nine months, Slager was released on $500,000 bond. He was confined to house arrest until the trial, which began , 2016. On , Judge Clifton Newman declared a mistrial after the jury became deadlocked with 11 of the 12 jurors favoring a conviction. A retrial was scheduled for August 2017. However, the state charges were dropped as a result of Slager pleading guilty to a federal charge. On , 2016, Slager was indicted on federal charges of violating Scott's civil rights and unlawfully using a weapon during the commission of a crime. In addition, he was charged with obstruction of justice as a result of his statement to state investigators that Scott was moving toward him with the Taser when he shot him. Slager pleaded not guilty, and a trial was scheduled to begin in May 2017. Slager faced up to life in prison if convicted. On , 2017, as part of a plea agreement, Slager pleaded guilty to deprivation of rights under color of law (18 USC § 242). In return for the guilty plea, the charges of obstructing justice and use of a firearm during a crime of violence were dismissed. On , 2017, U.S. District Judge David C. Norton sentenced Slager to 20 years in prison. Although defense attorneys had argued for voluntary manslaughter, the judge agreed with prosecutors that the "appropriate underlying offense" was second degree murder. He began serving his sentence in Colorado's Federal Correctional Institution, Englewood in February 2018. An appeal for reduction of sentence was denied on January 6, 2019. As of 2025, Slager, Federal Bureau of Prisons #31292-171, is still at FCI Englewood; his earliest possible release is August 16, 2032. On April 13, 2021, Slager went back to court asking for a reduction of his sentence. He claimed his defense was incompetent and that he was not involved in the negotiations over the plea deal. The court ruled against Slager and upheld the sentence on April 19. Civil settlement In an out-of-court settlement, the City of North Charleston agreed in October 2015 to pay to Scott's family. Walter Scott Notification Act The Walter Scott Notification Act is proposed federal legislation by U.S. Senator Tim Scott (no relation) of South Carolina to require the reporting of police shootings by any state receiving federal funding for law enforcement. ==See also==