A white police officer in South Carolina was arrested and charged with first-degree murder for shooting and killing and unarmed black man in the back as the man ran away.  The charges came almost immediately after a witness produced a video that completely contradicted the officer’s account.

33-year old North Charleston Police Officer Michael T. Slager is very clearly seen shooting at Walter Scott, a 50-year old man he had stopped in traffic for having a broken taillight.  Before the video surfaced, Slager claimed he was in fear of his life because they had fought over his Taser.

That was not the case; Slager at first tried to deploy the Taser against the older man, who ran away ten to 15 steps – but couldn’t outrun eight bullets.  The video shows that as Mr. Scott lies bleeding to death in the grass, Officer Slager then runs back toward where the initial scuffle occurred and picks something up off the ground.  Moments later, he drops an object near Scott’s body.  In American law, that’s known as “evidence tampering”.

Two more officers arrive on the scene, neither performs CPR on Mr. Scott.

This comes after more than a year of police excesses that have set off protests across the nation.  Cops are rarely charged for the use of deadly force, even if they’re caught on video.  One notable exception occurred late last year, with the indictment of another South Carolina police officer – in that case, a small town police chief – for shooting an unarmed black man.