As
you may have read, in one of my past posts about the death penalty, I only
support it in the most heinous of crimes and where there is a preponderance of
evidence with absolutely no doubt of the condemned's guilt. Well, it seems to this blogger
that the Michael Slager case satisfies both criteria.
In
case you live under a rock, Michael Slager was a police officer in North
Charleston, South Carolina, that is up until he fired 8 rounds at Walter Scott,
who was running from him after a traffic stop for a busted taillight, (Scott
also had an arrest warrant for failure to pay a substantial amount of back
child-support payments) that resulted in a short struggle between the two. Five rounds found their mark in Scott’s back
who expired at the scene. Slager was
fired from the department immediately after a video of the incident surfaced,
which depicted a vastly different scenario than Slager’s account of the
incident. (
The
video below shows Scott being shot in the back (murdered) by Officer Slager. Warning, the graphic content in this video
may be upsetting to some viewers.
North
Charleston PD also released the dash-cam footage from Slager’s police
cruiser. This video shows Scott running
from his car within a few minutes of being stopped by Officer Slager. Unfortunately the alleged struggle between
the two was not (that I know of) caught on camera.
If
either of these videos are removed, or the links no longer work for any reason,
just search YouTube for them, I am sure there are several copies floating
around.
According
to ex-Officer Slager, Scott ran from the scene and Slager caught up to him
after a brief foot chase. Slager tried
to deploy his Taser, but Scott fought back, grabbed the Taser from Slager and
ran away.
In
the video showing the shooting, Scott appears to be running away empty handed
and there is an object that falls to the ground at Slager’s feet (the
Taser?) Scott runs away, unarmed, and
gets about 20 yards away before he is felled by Slager’s barrage of gunfire. Slager immediately radios in that there have
been shots fired. He then approaches Scott
ordering him to put his hands behind his back.
When Scott doesn't comply (because he is unconscious or already
deceased) Slager, places Scott’s hands behind his back and handcuffs him. It should be noted that Scott is in
unresponsive, and lying in the prone position (on his belly).
Slager
than retreats back to the position from where he fired the shots, picks up the
object, (the Taser?) then walks back over and drops it next to Scott’s body. By this time another officer (Officer 2) has
arrived on scene and can be seen standing over Scott’s lifeless body. The two stood over Scott for a minute or so, and
then Officer #2 walks out of view of the camera, as Slager bends down and
appears to be checking Scott for a pulse.
A few minutes later (the video stops and restarts) two more officers
arrive and appear to be attempting to render aid to Scott. Scott is STILL in the prone position, which
discounts Slager’s report that they attempted CPR on the victim. I spent a dozen years as a volunteer
firefighter and EMT, and I have never seen anyone try CPR with the victim face
down. Scott died at the scene from his
wounds.
As
you can see, the video record of the incident is vastly different from Slager’s
account. So, not only did he shoot an
unarmed man in the back, while he was running away, but he lied to attempt to cover up
what he did. Thankfully, a brave citizen
had the fortitude to start recording the incident, and keep recording
throughout, capturing this dirty cop in the act resulting in one less bad cop
on the streets.
Yes,
I believe Slager is a prime candidate for the death penalty. Slager said he “feared for his life”, which
may very well be true because we don’t see what transpired during their alleged
struggle. However, once Scott turned his
back on Slager and was running from him, unarmed, he was no longer a threat,
and he certainly didn't deserve to die.
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