NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Wednesday, April 8, 2015, 10:22 AM
Updated: Wednesday, April 8, 2015, 10:27 AM
Judy and Walter Scott Sr., Walter Scott's parents, speak on the "Today" show Wednesday about their son's death and the arrest of police officer Michael Slager.
A South Carolina police officer charged with murdering an unarmed black man “looked like he was trying to kill a deer running through the woods,” the victim’s distraught dad said.
The FBI is now part of the investigation of the Saturday morning shooting, caught on camera, in North Charleston. Walter Scott, 50, was shot five times as he ran away from 33-year-old officer Michael Slager, who is jailed without bond on a murder charge.
The shocking slay was caught on video, without which the truth “would have never come to light,” Scott’s dad, Walter Scott Sr., said Wednesday morning on NBC’s “Today” show.
“They would have swept it under the rug like that have with many others,” he said, sitting beside his wife and attorney. “And I thank God that this young man, whoever it was, had the video. … When I saw it, I just fell off my feet and my heart was broken.”
The shooting footage has horrified the nation at a time when police killings, especially those caught on camera, are at the forefront of a national discussion on race and policing.
Walter Scott, 50, was running away when he was shot five times by a police officer.
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Michael Slager, 33, faces a murder charge and is held without bond.
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S.C. COP MICHAEL SLANGER CHARGED WITH MURDER OF WALTER SCOTT
The deadly confrontation reportedly began about 9:30 a.m. Saturday. Slager claimed he pulled over Scott for a broken taillight and opened fire after Scott took his Taser. He said he feared for his life during a struggle with the 50-year-old Scott.
Scott is seen in the video sprinting from the officer and appears to clear at least 15 feet before Slager fires the first of eight shots. Dressed in a green shirt and jeans, Scott stumbled and then crumpled face first into the grass.
"Shots fired," Slager said into his radio as he closed in on Scott.
Video shows Officer Michael Slager unleash a hail of bullets at the fleeing 50-year-old Walter Scott.
"Put your hands behind your back!" the officer shouted as he circled the body with his gun drawn.
Four of the shots hit Scott in the back, while a fifth hit his ear. Eight total shots were fired.
Slager cuffed Scott's hands before jogging back to his original position where he appeared to pick something off the ground. Another officer arrived as Slager returned to Scott and tossed an object, apparently the stun gun, next to the body.
Scott was pulled over for a broken taillight and had arrest warrants out for failing to pay child support.
Rodney Scott, left, and his brother, Anthony Scott, appear at a news conference in Charleston, S.C., on Tuesday.
The dead man’s mom called the disturbing footage “the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen.”
“I almost couldn’t look at it to see my son running defenselessly, being shot,” Judy Scott said Wednesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “It just tore my heart to pieces.”
Despite Slager’s insistence that he feared for his life, officials have blasted the killing after seeing the footage. It has stirred recent memories of the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Mo., and the chokehold death of Eric Garner on Staten Island.
WALTER SCOTT VIDEO: CELEBS SHARE OUTRAGE ONLINE
Both instances, like the South Carolina shooting, followed a similar script: a black man killed by a white police officer.
“After watching the video, the senseless shooting and taking of Walter Scott’s life was absolutely unnecessary and avoidable,” U.S. Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) wrote on Twitter late Tuesday.
“When you're wrong, you're wrong," Mayor Keith Summey said at a news conference Tuesday in announcing the charge. "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."
Protesters organized Wednesday morning outside the North Charleston City Hall. Many of the crowd carried signs reading “Back turned, don’t shoot,” Black lives matter,” and “Stop racist police terror.”
“We have to take a stand on stuff like this,” protest organizer Lance Braye, 23, said. “We can’t just shake our heads at our computer screens.”
With News Wire Services
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