Prosecutor: Officer who killed Walter Scott went 'too far'

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Former North Charleston police officer Michael Slager should be convicted of murder "for his decision to go too far" the day he shot Walter Scott, an unarmed black man who ran from a traffic stop, a prosecutor said Thursday.

"We are here to bring accountability to Michael Slager for his choices, for his decision to go too far, for his decision to let his sense of authority get the better of him," prosecutor Scarlett Wilson told a jury in her opening statement. "For his decision to shoot an unarmed man in the back five times."

The shooting on April 4, 2015, was one in a series of fatal shootings of black men by police officers across the nation that prompted protests and a national conversation about race, police and the judicial system. Slager, who is white, was fired and arrested within days of the confrontation.

A jury of six white men, five white women and one black man was selected this week to determine Slager's fate.  Community leaders here have lobbied the public for peace no matter what verdict is rendered in the case.

Wilson said Slager stopped Scott because one of six taillights on Scott's 1991 Mercedes wasn't working. She said Scott ran from the stop because he knew a records search would show he owed back child support and feared he would be sent to "debtors' prison."

"He lost his life for his foolishness," Wilson said. "He should have been prosecuted for it. He should not have been killed for it."

As Walter Scott shooting trial begins, pleas for peace

Slager has said Scott attempted to grab Slager's stun gun. Wilson argued that the stun gun would have done the fleeing Scott no good. She also said that after shooting Scott, Slager was more interested in self-preservation than in tending to Scott's wounds.

Slager, unaware that a passerby was recording the confrontation on a cellphone, attempted to "stage" the scene to make it appear the shooting was in self-defense, Wilson said.

The bystander's video begins after Slager says the physical confrontation took place. It shows Scott running away and Slager raising his gun and firing eight times. Scott falls, and Slager orders him to put his hands behind his back before handcuffing him on the ground. Scott died at the scene.

Slager's lawyer, Andy Savage, said the prosecutor's claim that Scott ran to avoid debtors' prison was speculation.

"He didn't just run," Savage said. "He physically and forcefully resisted to the point where they were fighting on the ground."

Savage stressed that the burden of proof was on the prosecution. He urged jurors to ignore all the media coverage the case has received and to consider only the evidence brought into court. He said Slager had earned a reputation of "excellence" as a patrolman, and thus was working the city's most crime-ridden area.

Witnesses on the first day of testimony included Pierre Fulton, who was in the car with Scott when he was pulled over. Fulton said he does not know why Scott ran from Slager, saying he would like to ask Scott.

"Unfortunately I can't," Fulton said. "He was murdered."

Late Wednesday, after the jury panel was finalized, prosecutors accused the defense team of using its strikes against potential jurors in a racially motivated way.

The defense used nine of its 10 allocated strikes, objections that eliminate a potential juror from the roster. Seven were on minorities. Savage gave legal reasoning for the strikes, and the prosecution dropped its challenge.

Also Wednesday, Judge Clifton Newman denied defense motions to dismiss the indictment against Slager and to move the trial out of Charleston County. The court did not immediately take up another motion to keep the cellphone video out of the trial.

2 high-profile police shooting cases at trial this week in Ohio, S.C.