“But again, if fleeing from a police officer is grounds for him to shoot Walter Scott then why not just shoot him the moment he started running at the original stop? Since the cop had no idea if he was armed then either?”
At that point he wasn’t a threat but he did turn it into a felony. The fight with the officer upgraded it to a threat. But let me also add that the suspect escalated this from a simple stop to a chase and fight that ended in his death. The suspect was in control of this situation from the start. Suspect made at least two bad decisions resulting in his death. One dead dumbarse.
And where was the threat later? When Scott was 15 or 20 feet from the officer and running away?
Fleeing police may be a felony but it does not carry a death sentence. Neither does physically resisting a police officer. Deadly force should be a last resort and used only to prevent death or injury to the officer or people in the surrounding area. No rational person could believe that Scott met that criteria. The officer acted in a reckless and criminal manner by shooting Scott. He fully deserves to be prosecuted for it.