On Tuesday, a white South Carolina police officer was arrested and charged with murder after a video showed him shooting Eight times at a 50 year old black man Lamer Scott who appeared to be fleeing from him.
The altercation took place on Saturday and began when Scott was pulled over for a traffic stop.
The video showed a brief scuffle between the two men before Scott began to run away.
Michael Slager was later seen taking him with a handgun before shooting Eight times at Scott’s back, when he then slumped face-down onto the grass.
North Charleston Mayor, Keith Summey said, investigators charged 33 year old policeman, Slager after video emerged of the shooting in South Carolina.
Mr Summey told a news conference: “He (Slager) would be charged with murder.
“That’s not something that we like to hear, or like to say. But it goes to say how we work as a community.
“When you’re wrong, you’re wrong. If you make a bad decision, I don’t care if you’re behind the shield or just a citizen on the street, you have to live by that decision.”
He added: “We as a city want the victim’s family to know that our hearts and our thoughts are with them.”
The FBI and the U.S. Justice Department launched a separate investigation into the fatal shooting, which is the latest flash-point in a series of incidents that have raised questions about policing and race relations across the country.
According to a police report, Slager, who joined the department in 2009, told other officers Scott had taken his stun gun from him. At no point in the video, which does not show the initial contact between the men.
