07 May, 2017
North Charleston police officer Michael Slager is seen standing over 51-year-old Walter Scott after allegedly shooting him in the back as he ran away, in this still image from video in North Charleston, South Carolina taken April 4, 2015.
In a reversal from his previous account of events, Slager admitted in court Tuesday that he did not shoot Scott in self-defense and said that his use of force was unreasonable.
It's now exclusively up to a federal judge to determine how long Slager, 35, will spend in prison after his guilty plea to a federal civil rights violation in the April 2015 shooting death of the 50-year-old Scott.
But in December, Slager's state murder trial ended in a mistrial after the jury failed to reach a verdict. The video garnered national attention, propelling Slager into the spotlight. According to the Post and Courier, "Slager's conviction for deprivation of rights under the color of law carries as little as no prison time and as much as a lifetime behind bars".
"As our Department works to support the courageous and professional law enforcement personnel who risk their lives every day to protect us, we will also ensure that police officers who abuse their sacred trust are made to answer for their misconduct".
But what's most striking about the statement from Sessions-a former prosecutor who sees himself as a passionate advocate on behalf of crime victims everywhere-is that he didn't even see fit to invoke Walter Scott's name.
In that light, "what these government officials did is they told Walter Scott and they told the Scott family, 'You matter, '" Justin Bamberg, a Scott family attorney, told reporters. Slager's plea deal is one of the first resolutions to a high profile, police involved shooting with Sessions at the helm.
"We got justice", Judy Scott, Walter's mother, said.
Wilson's statement said she had spent hours with Scott's family since his 2015 death following a traffic stop in North Charleston. Especially, since Slager stated that he felt endangered as a result of Scott trying to remove his taser.
Slager claimed during his trial past year that he was justified in shooting Scott - eight times according to the video - because he was "scared".
Slager, who was dismissed from the police force, told jurors during a state trial that he felt "total fear" before shooting Scott, who he said refused orders to stop running and then grabbed the patrolman's stun gun during a scuffle.
The state of SC, meanwhile, will drop a pending murder charge against Michael Slager, who was sacked after cellphone footage of Scott's killing went viral.
The local police chief first said officers fired into a vehicle after teenagers backed it toward them "in an aggressive manner". However, the deal which drops the two remaining federal charges against Slager, also tosses out the pending murder charge.
However, Slager still faces the possibility of life in prison, along with $250,000 in fines at his sentencing.
He says Slager's team "will have more to say as we get down the road". And one thing the family members mentioned is that they were glad that both these people were brought to justice and that this turbulent time is ending for the city.
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