By Sky News US Team
The father of a black South Carolina man who was killed while fleeing a white policeman has said the officer shot his son as if he was trying to "kill a deer running through the woods".
North Charleston Patrolman Michael Slager, 33, has been charged with murder over last Saturday's death of 50-year-old Walter Lamer Scott.
A bystander captured video which appears to show the policeman firing eight shots at Mr Scott, who was running away at the time.
The two men had apparently engaged in a brief scuffle following a traffic stop for a faulty brake light.
The dead man's father, Walter Scott Sr, told NBC's Today Show on Wednesday his son may have run away because he owed child support money.
"It looked like he was trying to kill a deer or something, running through the woods," Mr Scott Sr said.
He described his anguish upon seeing the video.
"When I saw it, I fell to my feet and my heart was broken," Mr Scott Sr said.
He said that without the footage "it would have never come to light. They would have swept it under the rug, like they did with so many others."
In the footage, the officer is seen with his weapon raised before firing at the fleeing man. Mr Scott falls face-first to the ground.
Authorities said the officer opened fire after using a stun gun on Mr Scott.
Slager said into his radio after the shooting that Mr Scott had taken his stun gun, according to the New York Times, which quoted police reports.
The video shows the patrolman handcuffing the victim as he lies on the ground, before walking back to a spot near where he opened fire.
The footage then shows him appearing to pick something up, return to Mr Scott, then drop it next to him on the ground.
Mr Scott was hit by five bullets - three times in the back, once in the upper buttocks and once in the ear, said family lawyer Chris Stewart, quoting a coroner.
The dead man's brother, Anthony Scott, said his late sibling was a father of four who served for two years in the US Coast Guard.
North Charleston Police say Slager, who has been with the force for five years, was arrested by officers of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.
Slager is being held without bail on a murder charge that could carry the death penalty, online court records show.
The victim's family plans to sue Slager, the department and the city, alleging that his civil rights were violated, a family lawyer said.
Nearly half of North Charleston's 100,000 population is black, according to Census data.
But some 18% of its police force is African American, the local Post and Courier newspaper reported last year.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US Justice Department has also launched an investigation into the shooting, which comes after a series of police killings of unarmed black men.
The deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner on Staten Island both led to nationwide protests.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Cop Shot Fleeing Man Like He Was 'Running Deer'
Dengan url
https://ahokokok.blogspot.com/2015/04/cop-shot-fleeing-man-like-he-was.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Cop Shot Fleeing Man Like He Was 'Running Deer'
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Cop Shot Fleeing Man Like He Was 'Running Deer'
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar