South Carolina Officer is Charged With Murder in Black Man's Death

Washington:

A white police officer has been charged with murder, the mayor of North Charleston, South Carolina, said Tuesday, after a video surfaced showing him fatally shooting an apparently unarmed black man in the back while he ran away.

The officer, Michael T. Slager, had said he feared for his life because the man took his stun gun in a scuffle after a traffic stop Saturday. A video, however, shows the officer firing eight times as the man fled. The state charges were announced in a news conference Tuesday evening.

The shooting unfolded after Slager stopped a Mercedes-Benz with a broken taillight, according to police reports. The driver, Walter L. Scott, 50, ran away, and Slager chased him into a grassy lot that abuts a muffler shop. He fired his Taser, an electronic stun gun, but it did not stop Scott, according to police reports.

Moments later, Slager reported on his radio, "Shots fired and the subject is down. He took my Taser," according to police reports.

But the video, which was taken by a bystander and provided to The New York Times, presents a different account. The video begins in the vacant lot, apparently moments after Slager fired his Taser. Wires, which carry the electrical current from the stun gun, appear to be extending from Scott's body as the two men tussle and Scott turns to run.

Something - it is not clear whether it is the stun gun - is either tossed or knocked to the ground behind the two men and Slager draws his gun, the video shows. When the officer fires, Scott appears to be 15 to 20 feet away and fleeing. He falls after the last of eight shots.

The shooting in North Charleston comes on the heels of high-profile incidents of police officers using lethal force in New York, Cleveland, Ferguson, Missouri, and elsewhere around the country. The deaths have sparked a national debate over whether police are too quick to use force, particularly in cases involving black men.

A White House task force has recommended a host of changes to the nation's police policies, and President Barack Obama dispatched Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to cities around the country to try to improve police relations with minority neighborhoods.

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the state's criminal investigative body, is investigating the shooting. The Justice Department, which has opened a string of civil rights investigations into police departments under Holder, is also reviewing the shooting.

North Charleston is the state's third-largest city, with a population of about 100,000. Blacks make up about 47 percent of residents, and whites account for about 37 percent. The city police department is about 80 percent white, according to data collected by the Justice Department in 2007, the most recent period available.