South Carolina city to pay $6.5M to family of unarmed man shot by officer

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City to pay $6.5M to family of unarmed man shot by officer
BRUCE SMITH, Associated Press

NORTH CHARLESTON, South Carolina (AP) — A city in South Carolina approved a $6.5 million settlement Thursday with the family of an unarmed black man shot to death earlier this year by a white police officer.

The North Charleston City Council approved the settlement by a 10-0 vote, and members of Walter Scott's family were on hand when it was announced.

The council had met several times in the past few months to receive advice from city attorney Brady Hair on a potential lawsuit from Scott's family.

Scott, 50, was shot April 4 by North Charleston officer Michael Slager while trying to run from a traffic stop. A bystander recorded the shooting with a cellphone and the shooting inflamed the national debate about how blacks are treated by law officers.

Slager was indicted on a murder charge in June and a judge refused to set bond last month, saying his release would "constitute an unreasonable danger to the community."

Slager was fired following his arrest on the murder charges and has been detained in solitary confinement.

The bystander's cellphone video showed Slager firing eight times as Scott ran.

Before the video was brought to the attention of authorities, Slager had told investigators that Scott tried to grab his gun and Taser. But prosecutor Scarlett Wilson said Scott was running away and the only time Slager could be seen running was to go back, pick up the Taser and then drop it by Scott's body.

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Scott's family called for peace. Some have credited the family's action — along with the officer's speedy arrest — with staving off the protests and violence that have erupted in other cities where unarmed black men have died during encounters with police.

Slager faces from 30 years to life in prison without parole if he is convicted of murder. There were no aggravating circumstances such as robbery or kidnapping, so the death penalty doesn't apply in the case, the prosecutor has said.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-10-09

[cookee68]

Well what can one say

[connda]

Well what can one say

I'm assuming the cops would say, "Make a law banning the filming of police officers working in the line of duty."

Give it time...

[RaoulDuke]

Kind of makes me wish I had a middle-aged good for nothing lowlife in my family that likes to flee from police. Much better odds of a payout than the lottery. Of course, the officer should not have resulted to deadly force. He would have been better off just laying off of the donuts and staying in shape so he could at least give chase and allow his badge-wearing thug friends a chance to catch up.

There is a danger in incentivizing this kind of behavior, though. If you are a life-long loser about to get caught and go back to prison for the remainder of your pathetic life, the best course of action is of offer nonviolent (or at least unarmed) resistance and hope a trigger-happy cop guns you down. You avoid prison and your crappy ghetto family gets a big time payout.

There is no question that the officer should be put in prison, and the police department should be heavily fined as a deterrent. But how about a $10 million dollar fine to go towards improving the community, and $250k to the family...which is far more than most of these police-fleeing scum would ever be worth, anyway. With rare exception (such as the person shot by campus police in Ohio), the vast majority of the victims were doing something that was incredibly stupid and were making the situation far worse than it should have been. They didn't deserve an on-the-spot death sentence for their crime, but their ignorance and stupidity were their downfall.