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| Judy Scott raises her hands to praise God for justice for her dead son, Walter Scott, as other family members and the family's lawyer stand nearby during a news conference, Tuesday, May 2, 2017, in Charleston, S.C. Michael Slager, a white former police officer whose killing of an unarmed Walter Scott running from a traffic stop was captured on cellphone video pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal civil rights charges that could send him to prison for decades. |
CHARLESTON,
S.C. (AP) -- A white former police officer whose killing of an
unarmed black man running from a traffic stop was captured on cellphone
video pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal civil rights charges that could
send him to prison for decades.
The plea from
Michael Slager, 35, came five months after a jury deadlocked on state
murder charges against him in the 2015 shooting of Walter Scott. South
Carolina prosecutors had planned to retry Slager, but as part of
Tuesday's plea bargain, they agreed to drop the murder case.
Slager
admitted violating Scott's civil rights by shooting him without
justification. He could get up to life in prison and a $250,000 fine at
sentencing, though prosecutors agreed to ask for about 20 years behind
bars.
No sentencing date was set.
A
bystander's grainy video of the shooting, viewed millions of times
online, showed the 50-year-old motorist breaking away after struggling
with Slager over the officer's Taser. Slager then began firing at
Scott's back from 17 feet away. Five of eight bullets hit him.
The
former North Charleston officer spoke little in court except to quietly
answer the judge's questions. Several of Scott's relatives sat in the
front row in the gallery as the prosecutor read a bare-bones description
of the shooting. One of them closed his eyes tightly, while another
hung his head.
Slager, who has been out on bail for much of the time since the shooting, was led away in handcuffs as the family looked on.
"God never fails," Scott's mother, Judy Scott, said outside court.
The
chilling video helped fuel the Black Lives Matter movement that emerged
around the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
It was seized on by many as vivid proof of what they had been arguing
for years: that white officers too often use deadly force unnecessarily
against black people.
When the jury failed to
reach a verdict in the murder case in December, many black people and
others were shocked and distressed, because the video seemed to some to
be an open-and-shut case. Some despaired of ever seeing justice.
The
plea agreement made no mention of race but said Slager used deadly
force knowing that it was "unnecessary and excessive, and therefore
unreasonable under the circumstances."
The
state prosecutor who pursued the murder charges, Solicitor Scarlett
Wilson, said in a statement that she is satisfied with the case's
resolution. She said it "vindicates the state's interests" by holding
Slager accountable.
Slager had pulled Scott
over on April 4, 2015, because of a broken brake light on his 1990
Mercedes. Scott's family said he may have bolted because he was worried
about going to jail because he was $18,000 behind on child support.
The
officer, who was fired after the video became public, testified at his
murder trial that he feared for his life because Scott was trying to
grab his stun gun.
The video showed Slager
picking the Taser up off the ground and dropping it near Scott's body in
what prosecutors suggested was an attempt to plant evidence. Slager
denied that, testifying he was following his training in accounting for
his weapons.
Slager also testified last year
that he regretted what happened, saying, "My family has been destroyed
by it. The Scott family has been destroyed by it. It's horrible."
Outside
court Tuesday, Chris Stewart, an attorney who won $6.5 million for the
Scott family in a settlement with the city of North Charleston, said:
"We know what justice truly looks like. It doesn't look like a big
settlement check. It looks like today."
As for what punishment Slager should receive, Scott's brother, Anthony, said, "Murder deserves life in prison."
Slager attorney Andy Savage had little to say outside court. "This is a day for the Scott family and the government," he said.
