White House: South Carolina shooting underscores need for police body cameras

Editor's Note: The attached video shows the shooting of Walter Scott. It contains graphic violent content and profanity, viewer discretion is advised.

WASHINGTON — White House official said Wednesday that a dramatic video showing a white police officer in South Carolina shooting and killing a black man as he ran away shows why police officers should wear body cameras.

The Justice Department and the FBI are now assisting state authorities in the investigation and prosecution, which follow a series of high-profile cases of police using lethal force in New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Missouri and elsewhere.

Josh Earnest, the White House spokesman, said the bystander's shaky handheld video of North Charleston police Officer Michael T. Slager, 33, repeatedly shooting Walter L. Scott, 50, in the back changed how investigators viewed the case.

'That is an example of how body cameras worn by police officers could have a positive impact in terms of building trust between law enforcement officers and the communities that they serve,' Earnest said.

Slager was charged with murder after investigators reviewed the video, the latest in a series of shootings that have sparked protests and a national debate over whether police too often use deadly force, especially against African-Americans.

FBI agents from the bureau's South Carolina office have opened an investigation concurrent with one led by the state police, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, 'and are providing aid as necessary to the state investigation,' according to a Justice Department spokeswoman, Dena Iverson.

Although the police officer is white and his victim black, federal prosecutors would not need to prove racial prejudice was a factor in the shooting, said William Yeomans, a former top official of the Civil Rights Division.

'The video is just so overpowering,' Yeomans said, referring not only to the shooting of an apparently unarmed man but also the officer's effort to move evidence at the crime scene.

Shortly after the attack, Slager picked up his police radio and reported, 'Shots fired and the subject is down. He took my Taser,' according to police reports.

The video shows Slager jogging back to where he had fired his handgun, picking up an item from the ground, and then walking back and dropping it next to Scott as he lay wounded and bleeding on the grass.

About 50 people protested outside Wednesday outside City Hall in North Charleston, S.C. The protest was led by the group Black Lives Matter, which rose to prominence after last summer's police shooting in Ferguson, Mo.

Keith Summey and Police Chief Eddie Driggers visited and prayed with the Scott family on Wednesday. 'There were tears on both sides, a real conversation between mayor and police chief and the family,' a family spokesman said.