A South Carolina grand jury on Monday handed down a murder indictment against former North Charleston Police Officer Michael Slager, who was filmed shooting Walter Scott in the back during a traffic stop in early April.
“Just because you have video in a case doesn’t mean it’s the be-all, end-all and the case is over,” Charleston County Solicitor Scarlett Wilson said at a press conference to reveal the indictment.

Slager was arrested and charged with murder on April 7 after a video that gained worldwide attention surfaced showing the officer shooting Scott, who was running from him. Wilson said the case was presented to the grand jury Monday morning, which immediately returned the formal murder charge against Slager, 33.
According to police, Slager had pulled over Scott for a faulty taillight. Scott's family has said they believe the man ran from the traffic stop because he feared going to jail for owing back child support.

Police and Slager initially said that Scott, 50, was shot after a skirmish over the officer’s Taser stun gun. But when the bystander’s video showed Scott being shot eight times as he ran away, Slager was fired and jailed. The footage also shows Slager dropping an object — which has the appearance of a Taser — on the ground near Scott’s body.

“We felt like the facts ... warranted our seeking the murder indictment,” Wilson said during the press conference. “The jury will make up its own mind after it sees the video and hears the other testimony.”

Slager, who has been in jail without bond since his arrest, faces 30 years to life in prison if convicted. Wilson has previously said the case does not meet the state's threshhold for the death penalty since it didn't involve an aggrevating circumstance such as robbery or sexual assualt.

Andy Savage, the officer’s attorney, called Monday’s indictment “just another step in the criminal process.”

“Until we have an opportunity to fully evaluate the State’s case and to compare it with our own investigation we will not be commenting on any aspect of the case,” Savage said in an emailed statement.

there's a video of the officer shooting the man while running away

In other late-breaking news, I hear we landed on the moon.

He should be charged. No excuse for what he did. Will probably get a harsh sentence.

Absolutely. That redneck lost his damn mind shooting ANYONE in the back. I hope he gets 25- LIFE.

Another innocent, no doubt upstanding member of the community, on his way to church after attending his book club, gunned down by rabid, evil cops.....gimmie a break...

Some free advice, don't piss off armed Police -for whatever reason- THEY HAVE GUNS!! I generally find that rule prevents me being shot...I guess 99.9% of citizens do as well...

I disagree, if you're a cop you have an obligation to be more upstanding than the average man not less. You use that gun with discretion and you can't go around popping off rounds just because you have a slight suspicion of what they're doing, and Walter Scott, though he was a criminal did not deserve death.

That being I said I also understand being a police officer is a hard job, and if you live in tough neighborhoods with high crime rates you're going to see a lot of shit normal people don't see. It takes its toll and you're going to have to find a way to cope with it, as well as getting a picture inside your head about what a criminal looks like: young, black, and male. Because let's face it, saying that a somewhere a black thug will commit a crime is like saying the sun will come up tomorrow. And no amount of political correctness will change that.

We need a better way to handle petty criminals and thugs. No matter how scummy they may be, shooting them isn't the answer and it only makes cops look bad. If middle class, professional, black people were getting gunned down for no reason then this would even more of a serious problem, but the people in these shootings are hood rats. It's hard to feel sympathetic for someone like Mike Brown when he strong armed a gas station half an hour before his death. Or Walter Scott when he owed thousands in child support. Freddie Gray had a rap sheet a mile long.

There's a lot of gray in this area. I personally believe the officer in this case was in the wrong and should do time. But we also need to understand why this happens. It doesn't just boil down to 'systematic racism' that's an invalid, stupid argument. You can't pin that on every white cop or every cop in general. The relationship between the police and citizens simply needs to improve.

I'm glad he got charged. I'll keep my fingers crossed for a conviction. Shooting someone 8 times in the back would get any of us locked up even if it was a burglar in our own homes (except maybe in Texas). Why should these jerkoffs get away with it?

youtube.com/watch?v=XKQqgVlk0NQ


u can clearly see from that video that you're probably related to the shooter (former officer)

that is if you think shooting at a fleeing unarmed suspect 8 times is justified

Cops obviously cant go around shooting people when they feel like it, however, we don't know what was said between the two of them and really why he started running. I'm not making excuses for the cop, but, again, I don't think its a bright idea to go around trash talking them. If I go on holiday to nearly any european country and did that to the police Id get a severe kicking, possibly not in the UK but cops here have basically been castrated anyway. Although, go into nearly any airport in Britain and Id do EXACTLY what the cops said...they have automatic firearms everywhere.

My point is, what gives everyone the right to immediately jump on the racist bandwagon without even acknowledging the fact the victim is, and always has been, a total asshole criminal anyway, who happened to be black. Yes, there are better ways to deal with criminals, i don't think this is offered by anyone as a solution but...you play with fire, your gonna get burnt.

I reckon the majority of middle class, black americans will sick hearing about protest marches etc. We had it in London a while back which led to the riots..I wouldn't have cared less if the cops had napalmed the city centre at the riots' peak to be honest. It would've got rid of a generation of totally illiterate, criminal scumbags, black and white.

Yea no shit. We've never seen this video before