NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — But for a series of split-second decisions that followed a traffic stop, Walter Scott might still be alive and police officer Michael Slager still patrolling the streets.
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — But for a series of split-second decisions that followed a traffic stop, Walter Scott might still be alive and police officer Michael Slager still patrolling the streets.
When the two men’s lives intersected on April 4, Scott had just purchased a used car from a neighbor. Slager was starting a routine weekend shift on a warm spring day. In a matter of minutes, one man was dead. Within days, the other was charged with murder.
A third man on his way to work captured the encounter on cellphone video that shocked the world and added fuel to the national debate about race and aggressive police tactics that began in August with the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
It all began with a traffic stop in North Charleston, a city that, not unlike Ferguson, has a large working-class black population policed by a force that is overwhelmingly white.
Scott was buying a nearly 25-year-old Mercedes-Benz sedan from a neighbor, and he knew in advance that it needed a few repairs. But it was still better than his van, a beater that would break down on the way to his job as a forklift operator in a distribution warehouse.
Slager had been with the North Charleston Police Department for about five years, following a stint in the Coast Guard. He was watching out for traffic violations and waiting to answer trouble calls over the radio. If things went right, maybe he’d get home early enough to enjoy the rest of the day with his wife, who was eight months pregnant, and their two children.
A few blocks away, 23-year-old Feidin Santana was getting ready for work. As usual, the immigrant from the Dominican Republic planned to walk to his job at a barbershop, passing storefronts, houses and empty lots.
The three men did not know each other when they left their homes, but their lives collided shortly after 9:30 a.m., when Slager flipped on his blue lights to pull Scott over. Police said it was for a burned-out taillight.
Scott knew he was in trouble. The father of four had fallen behind, again, on child support owed to his ex-wife.
Slager told authorities that he fired his Taser at Scott as he ran, but the stun gun didn’t work. Then during a scuffle over the weapon, Slager said, he shot Scott with his handgun in self-defense.
North Charleston police turned the investigation over to state law-enforcement officials. That night, the police department issued a news release, repeating Slager’s account of the shooting.
But Scott’s family was suspicious. They said the 50-year-old wasn’t violent, had a steady job and was making plans to marry his girlfriend. As a young man, he had served two years in the Coast Guard. Years later, his brothers said, he earned a degree in massage therapy.
The family wanted answers. As word of the shooting spread in the community, many feared police would close the case without taking any action against the officer.
Then there was the video.
On his way to work, 23-year-old Feidin Santana noticed the confrontation between the white officer and a black man in an empty lot. He stopped, and captured a video that showed Scott running away and Slager firing eight shots at his back.
When Santana heard the man who was shot died, he started checking Facebook to see if he had a friend who knew the family. He did, and Santana reached out to them. On Sunday, a day after the shooting, he showed them the video.
It confirmed the family’s worst fears, said Chris Stewart, attorney for the Scott family.
The following day, Santana gave a copy to state investigators.
The video immediately changed perceptions of what happened.
But there was more evidence that contradicted Slagel’s story, including video captured by a camera mounted on the dash of the officer’s cruiser, as well as radio traffic.
With the dash cam, the traffic stop starts like any other. Slager is seen walking toward the driver’s side window and heard asking for Scott’s license and registration. Slager then returns to his cruiser. Next, the video shows Scott starting to get out of the car, his right hand raised above his head. He quickly gets back in the vehicle and closes the door.
Seconds later, he opens the door again and takes off running. Within a block or two, out of the dashboard camera’s view, Slager catches up to him in an empty lot.
A recording of police radio traffic shows about three minutes pass between the call from Slager that he is conducting a traffic stop on a Mercedes and a second call to report that he is in a foot pursuit of a “black male, green shirt, blue pants.”
The dispatcher can be heard calling for all other police units in the area to respond. Several officers reply that they’re on the way. About a minute later, Slager can be heard yelling “Lie on the ground!”
About 50 seconds later, Slager radios the dispatcher: “Shots fired. Subject is down. He grabbed my Taser.” On Santana’s video, Slager is seen walking over to handcuff Scott, who is face down and motionless in the grass.
North Charleston officials announced Tuesday that Slager had been charged with murder. They quickly fired him from the police force.
They quickly fired him from the police force.
Authorities refused to provide some details, including the name of the passenger who was with Scott at the time of the incident. A police report said the man was questioned at the scene and released.
Slager lived a mile from the shooting scene in neighboring Hanahan. Neighbors mostly politely declined to talk about Slager, saying he mostly kept to himself and walked his pug dogs.