S.C. shooting started with chance encounter

But for a series of split-second decisions that followed a traffic stop, Walter Scott might still be alive and police officer Michael Slager still patrolling the streets.

When the two men’s lives intersected on April 4, Scott had just purchased a used car from a neighbor. Slager was starting a routine weekend shift on a warm spring day. In a matter of minutes, one man was dead. Within days, the other was charged with murder.

A third man on his way to work captured the encounter on cellphone video that shocked the world and added fuel to the national debate about race and aggressive police tactics that began in August with the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.

Family members say Scott was so fearful of returning to jail over late child-support payments that he tried to outrun the law. And the officer, amid the adrenaline of a short foot chase, fired a fatal volley of eight bullets at the back of a fleeing suspect who appeared to pose no immediate threat.

How it started

It all began with a traffic stop in North Charleston, a city that, not unlike Ferguson, has a large working-class black population policed by a force that is overwhelmingly white.

Scott was buying a nearly 25-year-old Mercedes-Benz sedan from a neighbor, and he knew in advance that it needed a few repairs. But it was still better than his van, a beater that would break down on the way to his job as a forklift operator in a distribution warehouse.

So that Saturday morning he picked up a friend from work and headed to an auto-parts store a few miles away.

Slager had been with the North Charleston Police Department for about five years, following a stint in the Coast Guard. He was watching out for traffic violations and waiting to answer trouble calls over the radio. If things went right, maybe he’d get home early enough to enjoy the rest of the day with his wife, who was eight months pregnant, and their two children.

A few blocks away, 23-year-old Feidin Santana was getting ready for work. As usual, the immigrant from the Dominican Republic planned to walk to his job at a barbershop, passing storefronts, houses and empty lots.

The three men did not know each other when they left their homes, but their lives collided shortly after 9:30 a.m., when Slager flipped on his blue lights to pull Scott over. Police said it was for a burned-out taillight.

Behind on child support

Scott knew he was in trouble. The father of four had fallen behind, again, on child support owed to his ex-wife.

So while he was still in the car, he called his mother to tell her he might be heading to jail, according to his older brother, Anthony Scott.

“He wanted to let her know he was getting pulled over and the way this was going, he’d probably be getting arrested,” said Anthony Scott, his older brother. “In other words: Get ready to come and get me.”

Slager told authorities that he fired his Taser at Scott as he ran, but the stun gun didn’t work. Then during a scuffle over the weapon, Slager said, he shot Scott with his handgun in self-defense.

North Charleston police turned the investigation over to state law-enforcement officials. That night, the police department issued a news release, repeating Slager’s account of the shooting.

But Scott’s family was suspicious. They said the 50-year-old wasn’t violent, had a steady job and was making plans to marry his girlfriend.

Even with all his struggles to keep up with child-support payments, his brothers said, Scott stayed close to his four children – a 24-year-old daughter and three sons ages 22, 20 and 16.

The family wanted answers.

Video leaves no doubt

On his way to work, Santana noticed the confrontation between the white officer and a black man in an empty lot. He stopped, pushed record on his iPhone and captured a video that showed Scott running away and Slager firing eight shots at his back.

When Santana heard the man who was shot died, he started checking Facebook to see if he had a friend who knew the family. He did, and Santana reached out to them. On Sunday, a day after the shooting, he showed them the video.

It confirmed the family’s worst fears, said Chris Stewart, attorney for the Scott family.

North Charleston officials announced Tuesday that Slager had been charged with murder. They quickly fired him from the police force.

This story was originally published April 12, 2015 at 10:20 PM with the headline "S.C. shooting started with chance encounter."