Police shoot 12 year old boys in parks, unarmed men in Walmarts, authorized concealed carry people at Nevada Costco, he most likely would have walked on this absent the cell phone video. After all, he planted evidence to make it look like the victim was armed with his taser. Claim 'fear for my life' and that would be all it took. And anyone who doesn't believe that is just fooling themselves.
No, he wouldn’t have. A taser on or near somebody who was shot at a distance, with all of the several entry wounds in the back, does not constitute justifiable cause, and the cop would not have gotten away with it.
Leaving that aside, I just hope that the rabble rousers don’t arrive. North Charleston (where I have family) is a very mixed area, with some high crime, mostly black locations, some white working class areas, some military off-base residential areas, and even a couple of higher end subdivisions.
Fortunately, I think that this was so blatant that nobody is going to be able to make hay on it. Even the police chief started crying when announcing it.
How would he have walked on self-defense when the guy was shot several times in the back?