* White US cop shot unarmed black man FIVE TIMES in the back (and missed three more times) then handcuffed his lifeless body before claiming he'd been in fear of his life.
* Father-of-four Walter Scott, 50, shot dead while running away from officer
* Michael Slager opened fire in North Charleston which has black majority
* Incendiary video shows former Coast Guard Scott collapsing to the ground
* Slager, 33, claims he 'felt threatened' after Scott wrestled Taser from him
* Video shows Slager 'picking up Taser and placing it next to Scott's body'
* Family attorney said Slager 'felt like he could get away with anything'
NSFW WARNING Video of man being shot and killed.
This is the moment a white police officer shot a fleeing unarmed black man five times in the back then handcuffed his lifeless body after he crumpled on the ground. Patrolman Michael Slager, 33, opened fire on father-of-four Walter Scott, 50, in North Charleston, South Carolina, on Saturday morning after reportedly stopping him over a broken tail light.
Slager was arrested, jailed and charged with murder yesterday afternoon after the incendiary footage emerged.
An outraged representative of Scott's family said: 'This was a cop who felt like he could get away with just shooting anybody that many times in the back.'
The killing comes at a time of mounting unrest over police use of force - particularly against black men - after violent protests erupted over the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson last summer. Slager had previously defended his actions as being in line with procedure, saying he 'felt threatened' by the Coast Guard veteran. The officer claimed Scott ran away after being pulled over at which point he tried to Taser him.
But he claimed Scott managed to wrest the stun gun away, prompting him to draw his pistol. At no point in the video, which does not show the initial contact between the men, does Scott appear to be armed.
In the footage, Scott gets a few yards away before Slager opens fire - seven shots in quick succession followed by an eighth, with three of them missing. Scott collapses face-down on a patch of grass. Slager then walks over, shouts at him to put his hands behind his back, then handcuffs him. Footage then appears to show Slager jogging back to the point where the Taser fell to the ground, bringing it over to Scott's body around 30 feet away and dropping it next to him. According to police reports, officers performed CPR on the victim. But video shows that Scott remained face down on the floor for several minutes without being given any medical attention. It is only after two-and-a-half minutes that Slager is seen placing his hand on Scott's neck in an apparent attempt to check his pulse, it was reported by The New York Times.
A black colleague then arrives and puts on blue medical gloves before handling the body, but is not seen performing any first aid. They are later joined by a third officer, who also does not appear to tend to the victim. As soon as paramedics arrived, they pronounced Scott dead at the scene.
Within hours of the footage, acquired by the Charleston Post and Courier, emerging authorities filed the murder charges and arrested Slager.
Keith Summey, the mayor of North Charleston, termed the killing a 'bad decision' at a press conference announcing the charges. He said: 'When you're wrong, you're wrong. When you make a bad decision, don't care if you're behind the shield or a citizen on the street, you have to live with that decision.'
On Monday, an attorney for the officer had issued a statement putting across Slager's version of events. He said the officer 'felt threatened and reached for his department-issued firearm and fired his weapon'. The statement, reported by the The Post and Courier, added: 'Officer Slager believes he followed all the proper procedures and policies of the North Charleston Police Department'. He also said that without the video, and the 'hero' who recorded it, there would have been no murder charges. He told TV crews: 'What happened today doesn't happen all the time - what if there was no video?' 'What if there was no witness - or hero - to come forward?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3029597/Cop-charged-black-man-s-murder-opening-fire-eight-times-shooting-ran-away-saying-did-felt-threatened.htmlUS cops are too gung-ho. Mixed that in with their social climate and it's a dangerous place to be a black man. But that video, if no one was filming the cop would have probably been lauded as a hero.
