Man who recorded SC shooting: ‘Mr. Scott didn’t deserve this’
The man who recorded last weekend’s police shooting of an unarmed black man said the victim did not deserve his fate.
Witness Feidin Santana taped white officer Michael Slager, 33, shooting Walter Scott, 50, early Saturday morning in North Charleston, S.C.
The witness said Wednesday he believes Slager responded with too much force during the fatal confrontation.
{mosads}“Mr. Scott didn’t deserve this,” Santana told host Lester Holt on NBC’s “Nightly News.”
“The police officer had control of the situation,” he said. “Scott was trying to get away from the Taser. There were other ways to get him arrested, and that wasn’t the proper way to do that.”
Santana was taking a phone call when he heard Slager’s Taser engage, and began recording before Slager opened fire with his sidearm.
“He made a bad decision and you pay for your decisions in this life,” Santana said of Slager’s response. “I knew right away I had something in my hands.”
Santana contacted Scott’s family and provided them with the damning video. It resulted with Slager’s arrest and charge with murder on Tuesday.
“It’s not something that no one can feel happy about,” Santana confessed. “If I had a family member that that had happened to, I would like to know the truth.”
Santana’s footage shows a police officer shooting eight rounds at a fleeing black man. The individual then collapses following the volley.
Police reports indicated Slager stopped Scott for a broken brake light. The two then struggled after Slager attempted to use a stun gun on Scott when he resisted.
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