Posted on 04/08/2015 1:06:17 PM PDT by Citizen Zed
The video appears to be damning: a white police officer fatally shooting a black man in the back as he ran away.
The shooting of Walter Scott by North Charleston, S.C., police Officer Thomas Stager has generated national outrage. Stager has been fired and charged with murder.
Legal and police tactics experts said the video would be powerful evidence in the criminal case. But they say it still leaves Stager’s defense with options.
One likely defense focus will be what is not on the video. The interaction between Scott and Stager before the shooting is not seen, nor is the traffic stop that began the incident. Defense attorneys will probably push on this, the experts said, telling jurors that the video doesn’t tell the whole story.
“What was the conversation and interaction between the officer and the subject?” said retired Los Angeles police Capt. Greg Meyer. “Why did the subject run away?”
(Excerpt) Read more at touch.latimes.com ...
Once he’s running away what does it matter? He wasn’t armed and he wasn’t endangering anyone at that time.
If one of our troops shot an ISIS member like this they would go to jail.
yep...until Jessie Jagmo and his sidekick show up with the mob
There’s probably a helluva lot more to the story. But the bottom line? You DON’T shoot someone in the back. ESPECIALLY someone who is running AWAY. Murder? Meh, likely not. Manslaughter? Absolutely.
Resisting arrest isn’t smart.
It can get you killed.
But even if you’ve just had an altercation with police if you’re running away unarmed, shooting you in the back is a bloody crime. It should NEVER happen!
This guy is in very serious trouble.
It was murder. Nothing more, nothing less.
Appreciate your clairvoyance in this matter...you can tell he is not armed? You can tell there are no place he is running to in order to pick up a weapon? You can tell he did not drop one weapon? You can tell he did not say, “you will be killed cop.”? Thanks for the trial by intuition.
This cop should fry. From what I see.
If a cop does shoot guy down like this, it is probably a good idea to not get caught on camera planting a taser next to the dead guy.
Why didn’t the officer press record, before initiating contact? ??
There’s no more to the story. The unarmed guy was running away and the cop shot him in the back repeatedly. There’s no excuse for that. Case closed.
It's hard to know what went on before the video picks up, but there are some questions:
Why did it take a couple of days for the video to surface? Were they slow in editing the clip in order to make it as damning as possible?
Cops have a "bully" mentality - that's why they want to be cops. Has this guy done anything previously?
Yes, but what could possibly justify shooting an unarmed man in the back who is running away from you?
Not to mention carrying over the taser and dropping it near the victim’s body, so there would be evidence to support his claim that the man threatened him with a taser.
No excuse or justification for this. None. Am I wrong?
That isn’t what i read in the article.
Retired Los Angeles police Capt. Greg Meyer.
Meyer said one big hurdle for the defense would be the part of the video that appears to show the officer dropping a Taser gun next to Scott’s body after the shooting.
“Of particular concern is why the officer appears to move the Taser from one location to another after the shooting,” Meyer said
Watching the video, retired Los Angeles County sheriff’s Cmdr. Charles ‘Sid” Heal said there wasn’t much there to help the defense.
“The man basically is running and never even turns to look. He isn’t zig-zagging. He is just running and he’s shot several times in the back,” said Heal, who has testified in dozens of officer force cases. “Only with wildest of imagination can I contrive a set of facts that would explain it.”
No, there as no excuse for this. The guy was running away, he had no accomplices, and even if he had had a weapon, he didn’t have it when he was running. And he was no immediate threat to anybody.
I’m totally pro-police, but this was wrong and the police officers or police related people in my family agree.
Agree totally.
Executed the man. Shot him in the back running away.
No defence.
Might be hard to prove murder in the 1st degree. Maybe 2nd degree murder.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.