Now an LEO is charged with murder here...

[ladder13]

Slager runs back to pick up the Taser, then drops it right near the body.


Sure didn't seem too confused there.
And the dead man's name is Mr Scott, fyi.

The witness has also said he was told by an officer to leave the scene, and that they didn't know he had a video. He additionally said he came foward with his recording after seeing the official police reporting and local coverage that contradicted his view of the events.

Now he says he's in fear for his own life.

 

[Beemerguy53]

This was a bad shoot. That is why the officer has been charged with murder. This incident hurts Every police officer trying to do their already difficult job. In turn everyone will be affected by the diminished ability of the police to protect and serve.

We all loose.

I sincerely hope this doesn't result in a police officer being ambushed and killed somewhere, by some nut who's decided that he's going to avenge the victim in this case...

 

[Kid_Pappy]

In a jam you choose "fight or flight". The video shows mr. Scott choosing to flee at least at that moment. Maybe his senses told him to "get out of there" for obvious reasons but we'll probably never know.

One thing I do know. If shooting a fleeing suspect in the back is legal and justified as has been suggested here then i may be in trouble. These gun blasted ears of mine don't hear so good. May not hear the sirens.

I sure feel sorry for the man that got gunned down like that. Bad way to go.

 

[Fishinfool]

R/E the argument this was a justified shoot as he was attempting to escape after struggling with the officer - In my 30 years as a LEO, if I shot everyone who resisted being taken into custody, my duty gun would be on its fourth or fifth pair of grips, the others unusable do to all the notches....

Case law has held that to shoot a fleeing felon, he must present a serious, articulable, clear and present danger to the community. Nowhere is there a shred of evidence that this existed in this case. Having an expended taser sticking in him as he runs does not qualify.

Using the standard expressed by some, you could question a drunk driver alongside the road. When you go to cuff him, he pushes you away, and starts to walk away from you, so its Ok to shoot him in the back until he drops?

I can't claim to know what was going thru that officers head when he took the actions he did. But if I were to guess, he got some kind of tunnel vision, a particular course of action came into his head, and he was unable to see past it as the situation changed. He went to autopilot, and did what he did. People make strange decisions under pressure, and not all of them good, or even understandable.

Another thing that gets me is how the officer is always painted by the press as being a thug, looking for the opportunity to kill some unfortunate citizen. Yet, most officers involved in these controversial shoots are experienced officers, with some time behind the badge. Common sense tells us if they were as portrayed by the press, they would have stepped over the line a lot earlier in their careers. Frankly, I feel bad for all involved, including the families. A bad situation, all around.

Larry

 

[oneflycowboy]

It looks like an additional charge of tampering with evidence might be brought against officer Slager. That object Slager picked up and then dropped next to the body of Mr. Scott as he lay dead on the ground has not been explained yet.

Also from what was first reported, the SC police chief said that officer Slager performed CPR on Mr. Scott while waiting for EMS to arrive.

From what I have seen in that video, no CPR was being done.

It will be interesting to read the police report officer Slager filed, if he had time to do so before his arrest.

And lets not forget, there was an eye witness to this shooting. It will be interesting to hear what he has to say with regard to what he saw that day.

This thread will probably be locked long before this all plays out....

 

[Izzydog]

Your diagnosis of shock is an uninformed opinion yet you caution others from rushing to judgment. I'm getting a mixed message.

I'm a military veteran, I've attended several of David Grossman's seminars on deadly force encounters, I have a BS in Criminology, and Sociology, and am currently a SC law enforcement officer, with 18 years of experience. My diagnosis of shock is an opinion, however I wouldn't say that it's uninformed.

I don't excuse the officers actions, however I do understand how, and why they occurred. I would also submit, that if placed in a similar "High Stress" situation, many young officers, would have done something similar.

I guess, the reason I caution against a "knee jerk" rush to judgment, is that I've personally been in similar situations. I intimately understand what, the officer was dealing with physically, and mentally during the altercation, and how he could do something so stupid.

I also understand the training that he received at the SC Law Enforcement Academy, and the reality on the street. I'm not going to say any more about that.

I personally believe,only two things could have prevented this unfortunate incident from occurring. The first is, the Subjects immediate compliance with law enforcement.
The second is the presence of a back up officer, for many reasons. Unfortunately, most "if not all" South Carolina agencies are critically understaffed on the street.

If you'd like to discuss it further, you can PM me.
Otherwise say a prayer for the officer, and his family, because they are victims of this event as well.

 

[PA Reb]

The reason for the initial stop is irrelevant. The shooting did not follow from a broken tail light or lax child support payments. The shooting resulted from an attempt to violently evade arrest. Reportedly the deceased did not want to go to jail...who does? So he broke away, fought the police, a less lethal means of subduing him failed - the deceased being angry or stubborn or tough enough that the Taser had no effect on him - and then he was fleeing attempting to continue to avoid arrest.

At that point he was not a guy with a broken tail light. He was a dangerous fleeing felon once he resisted arrest and opted to flee and he was "stopped".

What I see is a city throwing this poor cop under the bus because that is what is best for business. No one has yet pulled up the relevant SC law about fleeing felons. My hunch is that this was a legal shooting.

This is actually classic police work as traditionally practiced in America for most of American history. Felon flees. Felon gets shot to prevent said flight. Case law in most states will tend to support this.

Was the dead man a felon? Well he was if he violently resisted arrest probably, by the act of violently resisting, etc.

Did he flee? Looks like he did.

Sorry sir but I find the argument above totally unrealistic. I would invite you to read this > Deadly Force legal definition of Deadly Force .

As a former conservation LEO, I found that video to be very disturbing in many ways as far as the LEO's actions go. As others have stated, I have no idea what led up to the point where the video starts but I can think of absolutely no reason why the LEO did what he did especially the way he tried to move the laser undetected. There was no threat of deadly force from a suspect that is running away and would be no different if a private citizen shot a person in the back while running down your driveway after a robbery attempt or worse. This LEO made a really bad choice and he needs to face justice.

 

[James&theGiant1911]

It is interesting to note the guy that filmed this actually thought about deleting it and acting like it never happened.

South Carolina shooting: Man who took video feared retribution, considered erasing it - LA Times

he went to the police station to show the tape to disinterested fellow officers. At that point something would have happened to him any way and the tape would have disappeared. It was only at a later encounter with a relative of the deceased did he acknowledged that he filmed the encounter. He did not want to come forward, only after statements of things that did not happen to back up the officer did he come forward. When he realized that the officer would get off he decided to release the tape. He did the right thing by giving it to the lawyer who coordinated everything with the national news. Once it hit that point, they could not get the officer charged fast enough in order to not make this another civil rights incident. It is bad news but ultimately a bad decision by a bad officer. It is cool to say every traffic is a felony stop to justify violent police behavior but in this incident the police officer received what he should have.

 

[loknload]

What happens in that video is very sad.
I do not know exactly what happened to get to that point, but that man did not deserve 8 in the back!
From what I see,unless I missed something that guy is un-armed and at that point is posing no threat! The guy is running away!
C'mon 8 in the back,,,,Really? This is very disturbing!

 

[X Ring Ranch]

Let him run away and don't shoot him.

Get a warrant from a magistrate and arrest him with plenty of LEO present as witnesses

 

[Stevens]

Bad shoot no doubt, apparently there is another video, dashcam?, not released yet. If so it probably won't matter much what it shows. The sad thing is if the deceased would have followed police instructions from the beginning he would probably be alive still. Same goes for Michael Brown and who knows how many others.

Steve W

 

[M29since14]

Let him run away and don't shoot him.

Get a warrant from a magistrate and arrest him with plenty of LEO present as witnesses

For most of my life, I usually have been sympathetic with law enforcement, but that is beginning to change because of too many seemingly unnecessary shootings. I am not a police officer and don't know much about the specifics of their job, but I have been waiting for someone who is to say this. If the man got away, so what? Was stopping him at that point really worth depriving a human being of his life? That is what I see when I view that video.

 

[allthumbs]

I'd be willing to wager this officer pleads to some sort of deal if one is offered, he has no defense to that video, his commanding officers or anyone else involved can find no way to defend him and his own lawyer quit because the guy flat out lied to him. Mr Scott was no danger to anyone and the case CLEARLY does not fall anywhere near the fleeing felon laws of our country, if anyone wants to try and say that Slager was under stress and or shock please explain how someone in shock and or stress can clearly lie and try to stage the scene while he is in the act of cold blooded murder.

 

[ladder13]

This is actually classic police work as traditionally practiced in America for most of American history.

Gee, I hope not.

 

[flundertaker]

Absolutely criminal actions on the LEOs part. Not that he should be extended ANY sort of plea, but I would bet both the charges and sentencing will be as severe and numerous as possible regardless of cost in order to avoid the appearance of favoratism and to attempt to quell the masses who are looking for a reason to burn a city, any city, to the ground. It wont work, they could have a public 5 minute kangaroo court trial where they show the video, find him guilty and execute him out back the same day and there will still be those who want to allege coverup, pandering or some other such bollocks.

 

[wittmeba]

This soon-to-be ex-cop is history. He threw his own life away in the approximately three seconds it took to fire those eight shots into the back of a man running away.

I wonder if all eight shots hit the guy? And if not, wonder where those bullets went?

This is what I too was wondering...how many hits? Never heard the count on the NEWS.

Although this LEO has a right to carry and use his weapon if needed, I hate to hear on the NEWS about anyone being injured or killed by guns. It cannot do any good for the 2A push.

===
After seeing the video, read all the comments, develop my own opinion I'd love the opportunity to listen in on any pretrial and sit in the courtroom during this trial. Could be a great experience.
===

 

[ladder13]

This is what I too was wondering...how many hits? Never heard the count on the NEWS.

Although this LEO has a right to carry and use his weapon if needed, I hate to hear on the NEWS about anyone being injured or killed by guns. It cannot do any good for the 2A push.

===
After seeing the video, read all the comments, develop my own opinion I'd love the opportunity to listen in on any pretrial and sit in the courtroom during this trial. Could be a great experience.
===

One report, initially, was 5 hits. Three center mass, including one to the heart, one to the left hip area, and one to an ear.

 

[ladder13]

It looks like an additional charge of tampering with evidence might be brought against officer Slager. That object Slager picked up and then dropped next to the body of Mr. Scott as he lay dead on the ground has not been explained yet.

Also from what was first reported, the SC police chief said that officer Slager performed CPR on Mr. Scott while waiting for EMS to arrive.

From what I have seen in that video, no CPR was being done.

It will be interesting to read the police report officer Slager filed, if he had time to do so before his arrest.

And lets not forget, there was an eye witness to this shooting. It will be interesting to hear what he has to say with regard to what he saw that day.

This thread will probably be locked long before this all plays out....

The police chief changed his comment to "first aid was administered", apparently after seeing the video. One officer did have on latex gloves, was he applying direct pressure to the wounds?
I was an EMT a long time ago , and we were always taught to get the victim on their back, preferably on a hard surface, in order to perform CPR with chest compressions. The exception being infant CPR, where you cradle the baby with one arm.
It would be kind of hard to do CPR on someone with his hands behind his back and in the prone position.

Maybe GaryS or Beemerguy can comment on that.

 

[labworm]

A very alarming video, hard to understand the actions of that officer.

A broken tail light led to that?

 

[Beemerguy53]

The police chief changed his comment to "first aid was administered", apparently after seeing the video.
I was an EMT a long time ago , and we were always taught to get the victim on their back, preferably on a hard surface, in order to perform CPR with chest compressions. The exception being infant CPR, where you cradle the baby with one arm.
It would be kind of hard to do CPR on someone with his hands behind his back and in the prone position.

Maybe GaryS or Beemerguy can comment on that.

You're absolutely right: The patient has to be flat on his back, on a hard surface if possible.

I did CPR on shooting victims many times in my career (never successfully, btw). I can't imagine performing CPR effectively on anyone who has his hands secured behind him...it simply won't work.