Mayor Says “When you’re wrong, you’re wrong.”
Officer Michael T. Slager
Yesterday’s NY Times reported that a white police officer in North Charleston, S.C., was charged withmurder on Tuesday after a video surfaced showing him shooting and killing an apparently unarmed black man in the back while he ran away.
The officer, Michael T. Slager, 33, said he feared for his life because the man took his Taser in a scuffle after a traffic stop on Saturday. A video, however, shows the officer firing eight times as the man — Walter L. Scott, 50 — fled. The video also shows the officer dropping something, possibly the Taser, next to the Mr. Scott.
R. Keith Summey, now in is 21st year as the elected mayor, announced the charges saying, “When you’re wrong, you’re wrong.” “And if you make a bad decision, don’t care if you’re behind the shield or just a citizen on the street, you have to live by that decision.”
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the state’s criminal investigative body, has begun an inquiry into the shooting. The F.B.I. and the Justice Department, which has opened a string of civil rights investigations into police departments under Mr. Holder, is also investigating.
Mr. Scott, the victim, was struck five times — three times in the back, once in the upper buttocks and once in the ear. One bullet entered his heart. Although the police claimed thee perf9med CPR that does not appear on the video.
Mr. Scott had four children; a job, and was engaged. He did owe back child support and was concerned about going to jail for back child support.
Mayor R. Keith Summey has served as Mayor of the City of North Charleston for 21 years, since his first election in 1994. READMORE
North Charleston is the third-largest city in South Carolina with a population of about 100,000. African-Americans make up about 47 percent of residents, and whites account for about 37 percent. Nonetheless, like Ferguson, Missouri, North Charleston is governed by the white minority with a white mayor, white city council and a police department that is 80 percent white, according to data collected by the Justice Department in 2007, the most recent period available.
City Council meets with the governor Nikki Haley to announce an agreement of railway right of way.
Something familiar in this story? Because police departments are not required to release data on how often officers use force, it was not immediately clear how often police shootings occur in North Charleston, a working-class community adjacent to the tourist destination of Charleston.
The debate over police use of force has been propelled in part by videos like the one in South Carolina. In January, prosecutors in Albuquerque charged two police officers with murder for shooting a homeless man in a confrontation that was captured by an officer’s body camera. Federal prosecutors are investigating the death of Eric Garner, who died last year in Staten Island after a police officer put him in a chokehold, an incident that a bystander captured on video. A video taken in Cleveland shows the police shooting a 12-year-old boy, Tamir Rice, who was carrying a fake gun in a park. A White House policing panel recommended that police departments put more video cameras on their officers.
Mr. Scott’s brotherAnthony asked the obvious question, “How do you lose your life at a traffic stop? Three weeks before the shooting the brothers met at a family oyster roast. “We hadn’t hung out like that in such a long time. He kept on saying over and over again how great it was.” When one of Mr. Scott’s favorite songs was played, he got excited. “He jumped up and said, ‘That’s my song,’ and he danced like never before,” his brother said.