White US officer charged with murder in black man's death
A white police officer who claimed he killed a black man in self-defense has been fired and charged with murder after a bystander's video recorded him firing eight shots at the man's back as he ran away. Government authorities sought to contain the outcry as protests began Wednesday over the latest police killing of an unarmed black man.
The video, provided to the dead man's family and lawyer by an unidentified person who shot the footage, shows officer Michael Thomas Slager dropping his stun gun, pulling out his handgun and firing at Walter Lamer Scott from a distance as he runs away. The 50-year-old man falls after the eighth shot, fired after a brief pause.
The shooting in North Charleston, South Carolina's third-largest city, came amid an ongoing nationwide debate over issues of trust between law enforcement and minority communities.
