CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) – A lawyer for a South Carolina police officer charged with murder after he was captured on video shooting a fleeing man in the back is trying to change the public’s perception of what happened.
During a bail hearing Thursday, defense attorney Andy Savage said small amounts of cocaine were found in Walter Scott’s system after he was killed, and he suggested that Scott tried to take North Charleston officer Michael Slager’s Taser and use it against him.
The judge hearing the case said he’ll decide at a later time whether to release Slager on bond.
The hearing produced the defense’s first attempt to put some of the blame for Scott’s killing on the dead man himself. Over the past five months, discussion of the case has been dominated by the cellphone video made by a bystander. The video shows Scott scrambling to his feet and starting to run away before Slager shoots eight times at his back.
But prosecutors vigorously disputed Savage’s characterization of Scott. Solicitor Scarlett Wilson pointed out there wasn’t enough cocaine in Scott’s system to be intoxicating and Scott “had no interest in Tasing Mr. Slager.”