A white South Carolina police officer who was caught on video shooting and killing a fleeing black man is originally from our area.
Michael Slager, 33, graduated from Lenape High School in Medford Township, New Jersey in 2001 and worked at a restaurant in Voorhees before going off to the CoastGuard.
Slager was charged in the murder of 50-year-old Walter Lamer Scott after a cellphone video surfaced showing him firing eight shots from a safe distance at the man as he ran away.
Former neighbors and classmates spoke to NBC10 about the murder charge against Slager and the shocking video.
"To think somebody out of this neighborhood can do something like that, I just don't understand," said Larry Shay of Mount Laurel.
Shay and his wife Helga told NBC10 Slager grew up on their block and attended Lenape High School with their daughter and son.
"I remember Michael as a very nice boy," Helga Shay said.
Slager's former childhood friend and classmate Chris Doty also spoke to NBC10.
"As a fellow Coastguardsman and classmate it's a shame to see violence committed unnecessarily that ends in death and one's life as he knows it," Doty said. "Not only as a cop but a veteran, we hold ourselves to a better moral standard of behavior."
The video recorded by a bystander shows Slager struggling to use what appears to be a Taser against Scott, then pulling out his Glock pistol and firing at the man's back. Scott crumples to the ground about 30 feet away, after the eighth shot.
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The video, shot over a chain link fence and through some trees, begins after both men have left their cars, and includes no sign that Slager ordered Scott to stop or surrender. Once Scott is downed, Slager slowly walks toward him and orders his hands behind his back, but the man doesn't move. Scott then cuffs his hands and speaks into his radio while walking briskly back to where he fired the shots. He picks up the same object that fell to the ground before and returns to Scott's prone body, dropping the object near Scott's feet as a black officer approaches and checks Scott's pulse. Then, Slager picks up the object once more.
The black officer, Clarence Habersham, made no mention of any of Slager's actions in his very brief official report, according to a copy obtained by the AP.
Scott’s father Walter Scott Sr., said the officer "looked like he was trying to kill a deer running through the woods." He also told NBC's "Today" show Wednesday that his son may have tried to flee because he owed child support and did not want to go back to jail.
The video is "the most horrible thing I've ever seen," said Judy Scott, the slain man's mother, on ABC's "Good Morning America."
"I almost couldn't look at it to see my son running defenselessly, being shot. It just tore my heart to pieces," she said.
The bystander is assisting investigators after providing the video to Scott's family and lawyers.
Deflecting many of the questions from a hostile audience at a news conference, North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey said state investigators have taken over the case.
Police initially promised a full investigation but relied largely on the officer's description of the confrontation, which began with a traffic stop Saturday as Slager pulled Scott over for a faulty brake light. Slager's attorney David Aylor released another statement Monday saying the officer felt threatened and fired because Scott was trying to grab his Taser.
But Aylor dropped Slager as a client after the video surfaced, leaving the officer without a lawyer at his first court hearing Tuesday, where he was denied bond. He could face 30 years to life in prison if convicted of murder.
Scott's family and their attorney, L. Chris Stewart, appealed to keep the protests peaceful, saying the swift murder charge shows that the justice system is working so far in this case.
But Stewart said the video alone forced authorities to act decisively.
"What if there was no video? What if there was no witness, or hero as I call him, to come forward?" asked Stewart, adding that the family plans to sue the police.
Mayor Summey announced Slager had been fired from the police force. He also said he ordered enough body cameras to that every uniformed officer wears one in North Charleston.
Protests began within hours of the murder charge against Slager.
"I have watched the video. And I was sickened by what I saw. And I have not watched it since," Police Chief Eddie Driggers said.
He was interrupted by chants of "no justice, no peace" and other shouted questions that he and the mayor said they could not answer.
The town will continue to pay for Slager's health insurance because his wife is eight months pregnant, said Mayor Keith Summey, who called the incident a tragedy for two families.
About 75 people gathered outside City Hall, led by a Black Lives Matter, a group formed after the fatal shooting of another black man in Ferguson, Missouri.
"Eight shots in the back!" local organizer Muhiydin D'Baha shouted through a bullhorn. The crowd yelled "In the back!" in response.
The shooting comes amid a plunge in trust between law enforcement and minorities after the officer-involved killings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner on Staten Island, New York. Nationwide protests intensified after grand juries declined to indict the officers in both cases.
"We have to take a stand on stuff like this ... we can't just shake our heads at our computer screens," said Lance Braye, 23, who helped organize Wednesday's demonstration.
Scott had four children, was engaged and had been honorably discharged from the U.S. Coast Guard. There were no violent offenses on his record, Stewart said. But Scott did owe child support, which can lead to jail time in South Carolina until it is paid, he said.
The FBI and the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division are investigating as well. Proving that an officer willfully deprived an individual of his or her civil rights has historically been a tall burden for federal prosecutors, particularly when an officer uses force during a rapidly unfolding physical confrontation in which split-second decisions are made.
The Justice Department spent months investigating the Ferguson shooting before declining to prosecute officer Darren Wilson in that case. But it's easier to make cases against officers who use force as an act of retribution or who can make no reasonable claim that their lives were in jeopardy when they took action.
North Charleston is South Carolina's third-largest city, and its population is about half black. Its economy slumped after the Charleston Naval Base on the city's waterfront closed in the mid-1990s, but the city has bounced back with a huge investment by Boeing, which now employs about 7,500 people in the state and builds 787 aircraft in city.
Braye accused North Charleston police of habitually harassing blacks for minor offenses. He hopes the video will help people understand that some officers will lie to save themselves when they do wrong.
"This needs to be the last case," Braye said. "All you have to do is look at the story that was told before the video came out."
