Michael Slager’s Lawyers Want Him Out Of Jail Because Walter Scott Had Drugs In His System

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September 11, 2015

By Harriet McLeod, Reuters News Service

CHARLESTON, S.C., Sept 8 (Reuters) – An unarmed black man fatally shot by a white former patrolman in South Carolina in April had used cocaine and alcohol in his system when the police officer said he wrested control of his stun gun and pointed it at him, court documents filed on Tuesday show.

In this image from video, police officer Michael Thomas Slager checks on Walter Scott after he was shot by Slager in Charleston, S.C., on April 4, 2015. (Feidin Santana via AP Images)

Michael Slager, 33, was fired from his patrolman job in North Charleston after being charged with murder in the April 4 death of Walter Scott, 50.

Video of the shooting captured by a bystander on his cellphone was widely distributed, and the death reignited a public outcry over police treatment of blacks and other minorities.

Defense attorney Andy Savage said he would ask a judge to set Slager free on bond.

“It wasn’t just a cold-blooded shooting of a guy in the back and (authorities) knew that,” the defense attorney told the Post and Courier newspaper on Tuesday.

[…]

The bystander’s video showed Slager firing at Scott’s back as he ran away and Scott falling, though it did not show an earlier confrontation. In the video, Scott appears to be unarmed.

Slager was indicted on the murder charge in June. If convicted, he faces between 30 years and life in prison without the possibility of parole. No trial date has been set.

Savage plans to present still photos that were extracted from the video by state and federal law enforcement officials at Thursday’s bond hearing.

Prosecutor Scarlett Wilson said she would wait for evidence to be presented in court before commenting on it

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