Dash cam video shows officer pursuing man before shooting

Jeffrey Spell, of Charleston, S.C., places flowers at the scene where Walter Scott was killed by a North Charleston police officer Saturday, after a traffic stop in North Charleston, S.C., Thursday, April 9, 2015. "I've worked in North Charleston for many years and I'm troubled by the whole thing. I thought it would be respectable," said Spell about why he brought the flowers. "Nationwide, the cops are killing people. There has to be other ways of making arrests," Spell said. The officer, Michael Thomas Slager, has been fired and charged with murder. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Jeffrey Spell, of Charleston, S.C., places flowers at the scene where Walter Scott was killed by a North Charleston police officer Saturday, after a traffic stop in North Charleston, S.C., Thursday, April 9, 2015. "I've worked in North Charleston for many years and I'm troubled by the whole thing. I thought it would be respectable," said Spell about why he brought the flowers. "Nationwide, the cops are killing people. There has to be other ways of making arrests," Spell said. The officer, Michael Thomas Slager, has been fired and charged with murder. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

By Associated Press April 9, 2015 5 min read

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) – Dash cam video of a traffic stop provided the world with another piece of evidence Thursday in a fatal police shooting. It showed no indication of any physical or verbal threats before the driver bolts and the officer chases after him.

The video, released Thursday by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, shows what begins as a seemingly routine stop for a broken tail light. The officer, Michael Slager, approaches the used Mercedes-Benz driven by Walter Lamer Scott, and asks for license and registration. There’s a brief exchange, and the officer returns to his cruiser.

Scott then takes off running. The officer chases after him, also leaving the dash camera’s view. The next moment was apparently not captured by any camera: The officer caught up with Scott and a possible struggle over his police-issued Taser ensued. A bystander noticed the confrontation and pushed record on his cellphone, capturing video that has outraged the nation: it shows Scott running away again, and Slager firing eight shots at his back.

There is almost nothing in Slager’s police personnel file to suggest that his bosses considered him a rogue officer capable of murdering a man during a traffic stop. In the community he served, however, people say this reflects what’s wrong with policing today: Officers nearly always get the last word when citizens complain.

“We’ve had through the years numerous similar complaints, and they all seem to be taken lightly and dismissed without any obvious investigation,” the Rev. Joseph Darby, vice president of the Charleston branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said Thursday.