Walter Scott

Case background and investigation

On the morning of April 4, 2015, Walter Lamar Scott, a 50-year-old Black man, was fatally shot by North Charleston Police Officer Michael Slager in North Charleston, South Carolina. Slager had pulled Scott's vehicle over for a non-functioning brake light. During the stop, Scott exited his car and fled on foot, and Slager pursued him. Officials said Scott may have run because he owed back child support. What began as a routine traffic stop ended with Scott dead and became one of the most widely scrutinized police-shooting cases in the United States.

The encounter was captured on cellphone video by a bystander, Feidin Santana, who was walking to work. The footage, which surfaced days after the shooting, showed Scott running away from Slager when the officer fired eight rounds from his department-issued handgun. Five bullets struck Scott, with the fatal wounds entering from behind. The video appeared to contradict Slager's initial account that he had feared for his life during a struggle over his Taser. After the video became public, Slager was arrested and charged with murder on April 7, 2015, and was dismissed from the police department.

The video's release drew national attention amid a broader public reckoning over police use of force against Black Americans. In October 2015, the City of North Charleston agreed to pay Scott's family a $6.5 million civil settlement.

Slager's state murder trial began on October 31, 2016. On December 5, 2016, the presiding judge, Clifton Newman, declared a mistrial after the jury deadlocked, with reports indicating that 11 of the 12 jurors favored a conviction while one juror refused. Prosecutors indicated they intended to retry the case.

The matter was also pursued in federal court. On May 2, 2017, Slager pleaded guilty to a federal charge of deprivation of rights under color of law — a civil-rights violation — under a plea agreement. In exchange, state prosecutors agreed to drop the pending state murder charge, and additional federal counts were not pursued.

At sentencing, U.S. District Judge David C. Norton determined for federal sentencing-guideline purposes that Slager's conduct in shooting Scott amounted to second-degree murder and that his subsequent actions constituted obstruction of justice. On December 7, 2017, Judge Norton sentenced Slager to 20 years in federal prison. Because the federal system has no parole, Slager is expected to serve the bulk of that term. He appealed his sentence; the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the district court later upheld it, with a judge in April 2021 declining to vacate the sentence. Slager remains incarcerated in federal custody.