Hi folks
I spent a good portion of the night reading and trying to sort things out in my own head trying to remove my visceral reaction to seeing a thumping stumping 50 year old man running away from a police officer and getting shot to death in the back.
So here are some of my thoughts.
First it doesn’t matter how many times Scott was shot, an officer is trained to shoot until a perceived threat is stopped and that is what Slager did, the number of bullets has always been irrelevant to me.
it seems a reasonable guess that it crossed Slagers mind that the car was stolen, Slager even looks over his shoulder at Scott when Slager is returning to his cruiser, I would assume to see if Scott is going to bolt.
Scott fled the scene of the traffic stop, and he physically resisted detainment by Officer Slager, I think that qualifies as a fight given there are at least 14 seconds of a “tussle” on the ground, surely Scott was not simply evading Slager all that time with stealth like ninja moves. Scott tried to get Slager’s taser, (Santana’s account gives independent validity to this portion of Slager’s defense).
Now if Scott was willing to flee the scene, fight an officer and try to get an officer’s taser, all over a traffic stop what violence would he be willing to engage in once he became a wanted felon for assaulting a police officer, trying to get a police officer taser and fleeing the scene of a crime? what violence would he be willing to engage in with the next officer or the next civilian Scott came across.
Then the legal questions becomes did Slager had probable cause “to believe that Scott has committed a crime involving the infliction or threatened infliction of serious physical harm” and the answer to that has to be yes so then “deadly force may be used if necessary to prevent escape, and if, where [471 U.S. 1, 12] feasible, some warning has been given”
We know there was a violent altercation, hands on an officer is a violent altercation and we heard the Slager’s warning.
I still would like to see the police report and see exactly what Slager said happened. I am still bothered by the way Slager tossed the taser near Scott’s body but that doesn’t mean that Slager had nefarious intent.
As to the CPR/life saving measures, one officer did say CPR was performed, it was not, CPR is a specific action, some paramedics cut off Scotts shirt and possibly applied some gauze but my best guess is that Scott was dead within seconds of hitting the ground so it is a rather moot point.
Enter the BGI and all bets are off.