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Former South Carolina police officer pleads guilty in killing of Walter Scott Former South Carolina officer expected to plead guilty in Walter Scott killing
(about 1 hour later)
Former South Carolina police officer Michael Slager is pleading guilty to violating the civil rights of an unarmed black motorist he shot and killed as he ran from a 2015 traffic stop. Former South Carolina police officer Michael Slager is expected to plead guilty to violating the civil rights of Walter Scott, an unarmed black man he shot and killed as he fled from a 2015 traffic stop, according to reports.
A copy of the plea agreement obtained by the Associated Press on Tuesday also shows state prosecutors are dropping a pending murder charge against Slager. The AP obtained the agreement from a lawyer familiar with the case who didn’t want to talk publicly before it was finalized. The 35 year-old former officer, who is white, faces a range of federal civil rights charges that carry up to life in prison.
Slager was scheduled to appear in federal court Tuesday for motions ahead of his federal trial planned for later this month in the death of Walter Scott. Eyewitness video of the 2015 shooting captured the moment that Slager opened fire on Scott as he ran away from the officer with his back turned. The footage commanded international attention and was cited by members of the Black Lives Matter movement as among the clearest evidence of the fatal consequences of racially biased policing in the US.
A bystander captured Scott’s shooting on cellphone video, viewed millions of times. Slager has long argued he feared for his life before opening fire and believed Scott had grabbed his taser during a scuffle that was not fully captured on the video.
Slager’s first trial on state murder charges ended in a hung jury. The Associated Press reported on Tuesday morning it had seen a copy of Slager’s plea agreement, which purportedly showed that prosecutors in a separate state case are dropping a pending murder charge against the former officer. In December last year a state jury failed to return a unanimous verdict in Slager’s murder trial, resulting in a mistrial. Prosecutors had pledged to retry him.
Slager’s defense attorneys did not immediately return a request for comment on the reported plea deal.
The Charleston Post and Courier reported that Slager is expected to enter the guilty plea at a motions hearing at a federal district court in Charleston on Tuesday afternoon. The paper said, however, that terms of the plea remained unclear, including what sentence the former officer would face.
The paper added that Slager could change his mind before proceedings this afternoon.
A spokesman for the Scott family said they planned to address the media after the hearing.