TRR: Common Dropped from Commencement, SC Cop Charged with Murder, & Thugga’s ‘Carter 6’

Charleston Officer Charged with Murdering a Black Man

Deputy Michael Slager was charged with murder after video surfaced of him shooting Walter Scott eight times in the back.

                                                                                                                                                                                                Photo Credit: Reuters/Handout

After video surfaced showing a white police officer shooting a black man in the back, North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey announced that the officer will be charged with murder.

Dramatic video that shows a white South Carolina police officer shooting a fleeing black man after a traffic stop has led authorities to file a murder charge against the officer amid public outrage over a series of deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of law enforcement agents.

The video, provided to the dead man’s family and lawyer by an unidentified person who shot the footage, shows North Charleston Patrolman Michael Thomas Slager firing eight shots at the back of Walter Lamer Scott as Scott runs away. The 50-year-old man falls after the eighth shot, fired after a brief pause.

North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey announced the charge at a news conference Tuesday in which he said Slager had made “a bad decision.” Authorities said Scott was shot after the officer had already hit the man with a stun gun after a traffic stop Saturday that began over a faulty brake light.

“When you’re wrong, you’re wrong,” Summey told reporters. “When you make a bad decision, don’t care if you’re behind the shield or a citizen on the street, you have to live with that decision.” (Yahoo)