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[h=4]Police video shows Walter Scott running from car[/h]Dash cam video from the scene could be released soon, a law enforcement officials said.
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South Carolina authorities released patrol car dash camera video Thursday showing Walter Scott getting out of his car and running away after a traffic stop moments before he was shot dead by a North Charleston police officer. VPC
Walter Scott is seen in the moments before he was shot in this framegrab from dash camera video released Thursday by South Carolina authorities.(Photo: South Carolina Law Enforcement Division/frame grab)
South Carolina authorities released patrol car dash camera video Thursday showing Walter Scott getting out of his car and running away after a traffic stop moments before he was shot dead by a North Charleston police officer.
The video offers the latest glimpse of the moments leading up to the deadly shooting, which has captured national attention and underscored increasing tension between white police officers and African American men in cities across the USA.
It shows the officer making the stop and standing at the side of the dark Mercedes sedan while asking the driver for his license and other paperwork. The officer is shown walking back to his car, and Scott tentatively gets out from the car, then gets back in. Moments later he opens the door again and runs off the side of the screen.
The video was released South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, which is investigating the shooting death of Scott, 50, last Saturday.
The officer, Michael Slager, approaches the Mercedes-Benz driven by Scott and says he pulled him over because of a non-functioning taillight.
Scott can be heard saying he doesn't have registration or insurance on the vehicle because he was in the process of buying it. After a brief exchange, the officer returns to his cruiser.
Scott is seen getting out of the car and then takes off running. The officer then runs after him.
The officer's mother told ABC News, meanwhile, that she cannot bring herself to watch a bystander's video that captured the shooting of Scott.
"I just can't," Karen Sharpe, the mother of Slager, now fired and facing a murder charge, said. "Maybe to some people, 'Well, you're being in denial,' but I'm sorry I just can't. I just I know how Michael is."
Sharpe said that her son "loved being a police officer." Slager's wife is eight months pregnant, and Sharpe told ABC News that she had to accompany her daughter-in-law to an appointment with her doctor as a substitute for her son.
"He has a little baby on the way, due next month, and they worked so hard for this baby," Sharpe said. "I know he would go to all the appointments, all the OB appointments, and he had to miss it today."
Scott's family plans to file a federal suit against the police department, according to their attorney.
Attorney Chris Stewart tells The Post and Courierthat Scott's civil rights were violated when Slager shot him in the back following a traffic stop on Saturday morning.
Stewart tells the newspaper that he does not know whether there will be a racial component to the wrongful death suit until the investigation of the case is complete.
Slager was arrested and charged with murder after a videotape of the shooting, taken by a bystander, surfaced.
That video showed Slager, who is white, shooting a fleeing black suspect in the back multiple times. Scott died at the scene.
Thom Berry, spokesman for the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, which has taken over the investigation, told USA TODAY that none of the cameras mounted on any of the police vehicles that responded to the scene captured the dramatic moments recorded by a passerby with his cellphone.
Berry said he did not know how much if any of the confrontation that led to the shooting was recorded on Slager's dash cam. Berry said his department will release the video as soon as prosecutors grant approval.
"I have been told that none of the (dashboard) cameras have the incident itself," Berry said, adding that he has not seen the video. "Most of it will be driving to the scene, parking the vehicles."
Berry said officials are reviewing "potentially hours of video," because video from all the cars that responded is being reviewed.
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Feidin Santana, the man who shot the video of a North Charleston police officer gunning down an unarmed man, is speaking out in his first media interview. He reveals why he made the decision to come forward, and why he is now fearful. VPC
The man who recorded the shooting with his cellphone is speaking out, saying he shared the video with the victim's family after seeing that a police report conflicted with what he saw.
USA TODAY
NAACP: S.C. police shooting 'outrageous and revolting'
"I would say life changed in a matter of seconds. I never thought this would happen, that I would be a witness," Feidin Santana said Thursday on NBC's Today. "I'm still scared."
Santana, 23, said he knew Slager saw him.
"I recorded the video so that maybe he can feel that someone is there," he said. "There were just the three of us in that moment. I couldn't tell what was going to happen, so I just wanted him to know that he's not by himself."
Slager, 33, was charged with murder Tuesday. He previously had been allowed to stay on the force despite a complaint in 2013 that he used excessive force against an unarmed man. Mario Givens, speaking at a press conference with his lawyer Thursday, said he filed a formal complaint against Slager. Despite the support of two witnesses, Givens said police took no action.
Givens said he will file a lawsuit.
"If they had really listened to me and investigated, then that man would probably have been alive because he (Slager) wouldn't be an officer," said Givens, who is black.
Slager has few supporters. A fund to help the officer was started on Wednesday on a site called IndieGoGo that has raised under $800.
Supporters had tried to open a fund on the popular GoFundMe site, but the site's administrators rejected the campaign and refused to post it to the website. A GoFundMe spokewoman said the campaign violated the site's terms and conditions, but did not explain what terms were violated.
A post on the Facebook page for the campaign, called the Michael T. Slager Support Fund, said, "They would not give me any reason for removing my campaign now I know the real reason, 'Cowardice!' "
North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey and Police Chief Eddie Driggers were quick to condemn Slager, who was fired. Local NAACP president Dot Scott said she appreciated the quick action that resulted in Slager's arrest.
"All that should be expected because they had no choice," Dot Scott said Thursday. "I do not think there would have been that kind of response like that if we did not have the camera."
She asked the Legislature to fund body cameras for every police officer in the state.
"The lingering question in this case is what would have happened if there was no video," Scott said. "Would there have been an indictment? Or would there have been a cursory investigation where Mr. Scott was painted as a criminal and where the officer's version of what happened would have been accepted as truth?"
Contributing: Melanie Eversley and Marisol Bello
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