White Carolina Police Officer Kills Black Man

A white South Carolina police officer was arrested and charged with murder on Tuesday after a video showed him shooting a black man who was  running away from him.

The FBI and the U.S. Justice Department launched a separate investigation into the fatal shooting, which is the latest flash-point in a series of incidents that have raised questions about policing and race relations across the country.

Civil rights leaders called for calm, while many on social media said the official response would have been very different had the incident not been filmed by a member of the public who then handed the video to the victim's family.

North Charleston Mayor, Keith Summey said, investigators charged 33 year old policeman, Slager after video emerged of the shooting in South Carolina.

Mr Summey told a news conference: "He (Slager) would be charged with murder.
"That's not something that we like to hear, or like to say. But it goes to say how we work as a community.

"When you're wrong, you're wrong. If you make a bad decision, I don't care if you're behind the shield or just a citizen on the street, you have to live by that decision."
He added: "We as a city want the victim's family to know that our hearts and our thoughts are with them."

The shooting occurred on Saturday morning after officer Michael Slager stopped Walter Scott for a broken brake light, police said.

The video showed a brief scuffle between the two men before Scott begins to run away. Slager was then seen taking aim with a handgun before shooting Eight times at Scott's back. Scott then slumps facedown onto the grass.

According to a police report, Slager, who joined the department in 2009, told other officers Scott had taken his stun gun from him. At no point in the video, which does not show the initial contact between the men, does Scott appear to be armed.