North Charleston SC. Traffic stop and a tussle started. The officer used his stun gun but the perp fought him for it, then ran off. The officer shot him while he was running away. Fired 8 shots. The officer is now charged with murder. What would proper procedure have been for this? Can the LEOs here shed some light on this?

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Since 1985, except for pretty narrow circumstances, shooting a fleeing felon has been a no go in the U.S.

Apparently the prosecutor thought the officer made a bad call in shooting his assailant as he fled the scene.

Tennessee v. Garner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'll limit my comments since I don't know all the story. What I saw on the video looked bad as the suspect was running away and wasn't armed (that I could see).

The jury will make the decision based on seeing far more evidence than any of us will.

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Can open, worms everywhere.

From what some of my Police friends have said about this type if shooting (not this case) is that it's a big no no. The perp would have to be Manson, Dahmer, Bundy all rolled into one and you'd know that if he got away he'd kill again. That's about the only time it's ok.

Basically you have a killer or terrorist who has killed and is certain to kill again then you are basically left with the only option. ...to shoot

I was not there however after watching the full video 4 times it would be almost impossible to defend that officers decision. To shoot an unarmed suspect in the back 8 times while running away is just wrong! Especially for a broken tail light!

I can't imagine what the hell that officer was thinking but he will have plenty of time to think about it in jail.

It began as a traffic stop.

The mayor of the town seemed to think it was a very unfortunate call by the officer.

I suppose the whole story will come out in court. Sure looked like a bad shooting, though.

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Oh well, what the hell.

According to the news reports I've seen, this started as a traffic stop for a taillight. Why on earth did the victim bolt??? And what on earth made that officer shoot him??? There is much more to this story than we've seen or heard so far, and I hope some clarification is forthcoming, as nobody's actions so far make any sense.

When my sons started driving, I told them that if they were ever stopped by the police, the first thing to do is put their windows down and keep their hands on the top of the steering wheel with their fingers splayed out so the officer would have no reason to feel threatened.

I told them not to do or say anything until the officer approached and told them what to do, and that they were then to do it without argument.

I specifically told each of them that if a cop told him to get out of the car, and stand on his head and whistle, then he should do that...and we would straighten it out later.

Very, very foolhardy to run from the police...you never know what the cop chasing you is capable of, or what he might do in the heat of the moment.

It's unfortunate that the video doesn't show the two persons involved until right before the shots, but after watching it several times, I find it very difficult to put any spin on it that would look good for the cop. Calm deliberate shooting like at the range, at the back of a guy who is quite clearly not a threat to him, then he looks around, then calmly walks over talking into his radio. Then the business of dropping the item next to the suspect. I hope there's more to this, but....

Yes, the case looks bad for the officer, but why would they post a video that starts right when's shooting? Surely they got more than that.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

They said he was running/ fleeing because he did not want to go to jail for unpaid child support. If the other person would not have filmed this then it would have swept under the rug. Like has been said the officer will have a lot of time to think about it.

Possibly not. It's an amateur video, shot with a cell phone. While someone's reactions might be quick and their intent is to quickly capture something on video, phones are often slow to activate. On my iPhone, I have to swipe to activate the phone, then hit the camera icon, then swipe again to switch to video mode, then hit the "record" button...all the while trying to maintain the camera's field of view. It isn't an instantaneous process. All that is a relatively easy process, but it still takes a few seconds to get it going. You can miss a lot in a few seconds.

Even without video, it would be difficult to 'splane shooting someone in the back. He could always claim he thought he saw the perp reaching for a weapon.

I think it might well be a justifiable shooting under the Garner standard, as the fleeing man qualified as a danger to the community. In fact, I think it a politicized tragedy that the officer has been treated this way.

The fleeing guy fought the officer, resisted him, fought off being Tazed, and then stole the officer's Tazer and had it in hand while fleeing initially.

As for eight times being shot, well you shoot as many times as you need to.

If the guy had not attacked the policeman, fought him, and stole his Tazer and then fled..he would not have been shot. The bad thing is not that a criminal was killed, but in the way the policeman is being treated and villified in the media.

From just what I saw I hope this cop gets life or even the death penalty, no human should be shot like this, that cop looked cool as a cucumber and to put 8 rounds in him, I see no way to justify that shooting.

I saw a video yesterday (cell phone recorded, there was a tree in the way and you couldn't see everything that was going on) and it looks terrible.

The suspect ran off and not even that fast. There were no verbal commands and the LEO didn't even try to chase the suspect. He just drew his gun and fired. The LEO seemed to be very cool/relaxed about it.

Murder charge sounds about right to me.

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Jorge

So we should look askance at the officer for being well trained and calm? The runner still had the Tazer probes in him. He shrugged off the less lethal means of restraining him and stole it. What was chasing him supposed to accomplish? Clear and present threat to the community.

What I see is Walter Scott does not appear to be in the best of shape and the officer could have easily run him down on foot. The shooting does not appear to be a defense or dire need. He could have just followed him if he didn't think he could take him in a physical confrontation. I suspect the officer knew if he was armed other than the taser he got from the officer.

Where is Holder and Sharpton on this one?

The Man was shot is the back eight times to stop Him from running? What was His Capital Offense? Not paying Child Support and a Traffic Violation?
Why did He run? Maybe He had good reason to do so but unless there is Audio of the entire incident We will never know for sure.
The evidence points to Murder so the Courts will decide the Officers fate if it gets that far.

All I can figure is that when the victim got the cop's Taser, the cop must have been focusing on that fact as he drew his weapon. (I would be thinking the Taser could be used on me to disable me, and the fact the other guy had it would be cause for me to draw my gun as a means an allowable level of force escalation.) (Edit: accounts say the cop had used the Taser already on the subject, so I don't think it could have been deployed again, against the cop, but I'm not sure in the heat of the moment if that entered the cop's mind); It seems strange that the guy who grabbed the Taser would immediately run off with it, though -- and that's, I think, what led to the shooting. The cop must still have been processing the fact that the "bad guy" had his Taser, and focused on that instead of the fact that the guy was now running away instead of turning the Taser on him.

The cop made a huge mistake by firing on a fleeing "felon" (if that's what he was by then, depending on what had happened during the previous struggle.) I think the cop was on auto-pilot from the time he drew until he finished firing. (Eight rounds sounds bad, but they were quick rounds, and I don't fault that part of the cop's actions, because yes, you use deadly force until the subject is down and no longer a threat.)

The cop was completely wrong in the situation. I don't know if a murder charge is warranted, but at least manslaughter. It was a tragic incident, and regardless of other incidents that have happened recently, shows how a single bad day or lapse of concentration or judgment by an LEO can have terrible consequences. I'm not defending the cop; I'm just saying that I appreciate what LEO's do, and can understand human shortcomings that, in a situation like that, are tragic for all concerned.

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Ukraine -- now more than ever

I'll wait on making any judgement until all the facts are known. However, at first glance it does not bode well for the shooter.The Officer will be judged in the courts - we cannot know everything at this early stage of the investigation. He may need O.J.'s team of legal beagles.

"clear and present threat to the community?"

Nice try.

This is all over the news and the only thing I can say about it is that these types of confrontations are getting out of hand!

Come on now, do you really want people with taillights out running around your neighborhood ?

Anyone have a link to an unedited version of the video. I've tried watching what the news puts up but they butcher it so badly I now know less than I did.

That's the video I saw.

White SC officer charged with murder for shooting black man - FOX 32 News Chicago

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Jorge

You need to see the one where the cop handcuffs him and then runs back to pick up his taser to plant it near the dead guy, right there the cop new he was "DEAD" wrong, I'm sure he never thought he was being filmed.

This one is unedited.

That's exactly the way it looks. I wonder how many LEO shootings like like this occur that weren't filmed and never questioned.

Watching that video multiple times the guy never had the taser, the cop flips it behind himself then shoots the man dead, handcuffs him runs back to retrieve the taser to plant it by the dead man, really how does anyone defend that ?

What blows my mind is how calm he is. Like putting down a rabid dog.
Good Lord man, you just took a human life!

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Keep on Chooglin'

Camera's and video devices are everywhere, be on your best behavior.

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Sure you did

Of what, fathering more babies and failing to pay child support?

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Sure you did

I'm getting an action cam that I'm gonna take biking, hiking, use it as a dash cam and stuff for my video channel. I hope to never see anything like that.

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Keep on Chooglin'

I will always try to support the position of any LEO involved in an altercation however I cannot do so in this case based solely on the video I have reviewed.

In as much as the actual shooting doesn't appear to be in any self defense capacity I am troubled by the apparent rush to pick up an object only to drop it near the victim. NOTHING at the scene should have been disturbed unless it was to secure a dangerous condition. The technicians will photograph and document the most minute detail.

While I can't tell for sure that it was the officers taser, later on in the video while standing near the victim he does pick something up off the ground and appears to return it to his duty belt; where his taser would have been holstered...

Although we don't see events prior to the shooting even if the object picked up was a weapon carried by the victim-unlikely as it still should not have been moved from where it was dropped-the post shooting actions of the officer cannot in any way justify the actual shooting.

Unless there's something we don't yet know it would seem that the charge is appropriate. His Chief seems to have came to the same conclusion almost immediately and he at least would know more than we do.

There just may be something to it as the New's just said the Officer has been arrested without Bond.
Maybe for His safety or maybe They think He did Murder the Guy.

This could be why the lawyer that initially represented the officer has now resigned as his counsel. Lying to your lawyer is not only stupid, it's a cardinal sin.

I learned long ago, back in the 1980s when I was a union shop steward, that there is nothing more embarrassing than having the person you are representing lie to you about what happened. It makes it very easy for the other side to make you look the fool and make your client look even more guilty.

It's even worse when you are a lawyer and your client is facing life in prison or worse.

There might be things that the officer could say to mitigate the circumstances, but they are all undermined if he lied in his statements to his attorney.

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Can open, worms everywhere.

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?

I disagree. I watched the video with a former LEO. Watch the officers actions. He shoots the runner in the back, runs up and handcuffs him. He then runs back to where the tazer was dropped at the site of the original fight dozens of feet away. He then runs back to the prone and cuffed perp and drops the tazer. He then kneels down and picks up the tazer and holsters it.

A bad shooting and with the help of the video completely indefensible.

As I read that I was thinking that it is the most bizarre thing I have ever seen you write - in quite a few years.

Did he drop the taser before the other officer arrived?

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Sure you did

Right or wrong, do not resist.

When I was a young inner-city firefighter in Baltimore, in the mid-70s, it was very common for the cops there to carry a 'throw-down weapon', usually a knife, that they could claim a suspect had should the need arise. They were actually pretty open about it. I trust that practice has ended.

I am the father, brother, son-in-law, and close friend of law enforcement officers. I could never do their job. (The cars aren't big enough to hold all the ammo I would want to carry. ) The vast majority of them are good people who act honestly and ethically. But as in any profession, there are bad apples who do bad things, and when they do they deserve to be punished accordingly.

However, the crime committed does not justify taking a life, not even close in this encounter.

That was also very common growing up in Chicago in the 60's and 70's. The abundance of phone video recordings is now changing the landscape.

stopped for a tail light................
shot in the back !!

You got to be kidding me..................
Next case.

According to the news reports I heard, IIRC, four or five shots hit the victim. Your question reminds me of an incident from my career...

My engine responded to a police-involved shooting about 25 years ago, wherein a 6'4", 300 lb. crackhead went after a Baltimore City police officer with a mallet. The officer, running backward, unholstered his Glock 17 and fired 12 rounds one-handed in the general direction of the guy. This happened at a busy intersection at rush hour on a weekday.

Two bullets hit the suspect: one in his hand and one in his face, just to the right of his nose. That bullet dropped him when it was deflected downward through his neck, nicking his jugular vein, and going into his right lung. When we got there, he was down, with a huge hematoma on the right side of his neck and blood all over his face. We had a tough time finding the bullet wound and figuring out exactly what was going on. When the medics got there, we transported him to Johns Hopkins Hospital, which was the closest ER, and he eventually recovered.

The other ten bullets? Well, one of them went though the windshield of a nearby SUV, passing at an angle from left to right and embedding itself in the dash. The couple driving it were shaking at how close they had come to being shot. I never heard anything about the other nine bullets, where they went or what they hit...

There was a lot of good luck that day for all involved.

99 out of 100 deserve the "I wasn't there" evaluation.
This is the 1.

I'm going to wait for the facts.

But I note now that "8 shots" and "in the back" mean nothing. Would 7 shots have been okay? Would "in the front" have been okay? These phrases are intended to excite (incite?). I can wait for a grand jury to decide. The legacy press can't.

I agree, the unedited video shows him being very calm as he interferes with the crime scene. I wonder if I could be so cool.

The video backs up something we were told at my CCW class. EXPECT to be on video when trouble starts and be real sure that it's a proper time to draw your gun and shoot.

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Release the Kraken

The officer's behavior after he walks over to the body is very disturbing. He seems totally detached from what he has done and the result. After cuffing him he never checks for of signs of life until the very end of the video and just stands there. Its almost like he is thinking, OK, he's dead, my job is done.