By Tenny Tatusian, Los Angeles Times (TNS)
The white South Carolina police officer whose shooting of a fleeing, unarmed black man was captured in a chilling cellphone video has been indicted on a murder charge by a grand jury.
Michael Thomas Slager, who has been in jail since the video shot by a pedestrian on his way to work surfaced nationally in April, is being charged with murder in the death of Walter Scott, a driver who ran out of his car after Slager pulled him over.
Slager had been with the North Charleston Police Department for five years before being fired three days after the April 4 shooting.
The video shows Scott running away from Slager as the now former North Charleston police officer unleashed a volley of gunfire that brought the 50-year-old down.
The murder indictment was expected: In the video, Slager is seen firing eight shots at Scott as he’s running away.
(Los Angeles Times staff writers James Queally, Christine Mai-Duc and David Zucchino contributed to this report.)
(c)2015 Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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