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http://www.postandcourier.com/news/...cle_05443c1c-b525-11e6-91f0-6b1e86cc0947.html
Michael Slager expected to testify in own defense in Walter Scott shooting
After one of his old co-workers said Monday that police officers are trained to shoot a fleeing man in the back “if it’s needed,” Michael Slager is expected to give his own explanation for opening fire on Walter Scott.
Slated for Tuesday, Slager’s testimony in his murder trial will cap a parade of four officers from the North Charleston Police Department who came to his defense a day earlier.
Slager shot at Scott eight times last year as Scott ran away; he said Scott had taken his Taser. Experts have estimated that Scott was up to 18 feet away when Slager started shooting. Five bullets hit him from behind.
The killing was captured on an eyewitness video that authorities said contradicted Slager's account that Scott was coming at him with the stun gun.
“We are trained … to stop the threat,” officer Jason Dandridge testified Monday, “and if certain criteria is met, then shooting somebody in the back while they’re running away at 18, 20 or 30 feet, even, is not unjustified.”
The defense used testimony by the officers — a patrolman, a detective and two lieutenants — to give jurors a sense of Slager’s duties, his training and his mindset that day when he stopped Scott’s car along the high-crime Remount Road corridor. The officers also said a violent confrontation can affect one’s recollection, a bid to explain how Slager’s account of the shooting appeared to differ from the video.
Prosecutors had halted one officer from relaying to jurors how Slager had described the shooting to him. Ninth Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson said such testimony would be hearsay that’s barred under court rules.
“There’s a way to get into it,” Wilson said of Slager's version, “and it’s through (the defendant).”
That will happen early Tuesday, what could be the final day for the defense case, lead attorney Andy Savage said. Testimony in the trial already has stretched for 14 days.
Many of the officers who testified Monday agreed that the department’s firearms training is lacking. Each fought off prosecutors’ attempts to portray as unreasonable the shooting of people in the back.
Legal guidelines on when officers are warranted in using deadly force in such situations could be included in the jury's deliberation instructions. Opposing attorneys were expected Monday to make written proposals for Circuit Judge Clifton Newman, who will hear oral arguments on the legal points once testimony wraps up.
It’s a concept that courts have been wrangling with for years. Three decades ago, the U.S. Supreme Court said police must have probable cause to believe a fleeing suspect presents a threat of serious injury before using lethal force.
But that ruling came in a civil rights lawsuit, and it’s not written in South Carolina's law books. Some of the officers who testified, though, said they had been taught similar rules.
Slager, now 35, stopped Scott on April 4, 2015, and later chased him on foot. He said that they got into a fight over his Taser and that Scott, 50, grabbed it and pointed it at him. Slager said he fired in self-defense.
But a bystander filmed the end of the encounter. The footage showed Slager drawing his pistol as Scott turned and started running away.
The Taser, meanwhile, is seen bouncing on the ground behind Slager, but it’s unclear if the officer knew that at the time he opened fire.
In questioning one of the witnesses Monday, a prosecutor said it’s understandable for officers to shoot someone charging at them with a Taser.
“I think under any circumstance, you can do that,” Chief Deputy Solicitor Bruce DuRant said.
When he and Scott stood after struggling on the ground, Slager said Scott came at him. But when he pulled the trigger, Slager said Scott was turning away. Authorities have pointed to the bystander’s video as further evidence that Scott was just trying to get away.
And the Taser, the prosecutor stressed Monday, had fallen behind the policeman. DuRant asked Lt. Victor Buskirk if he still would have shot someone who had dropped a weapon.
“If I have all those facts,” Buskirk said, “then no.”
At some point during the gunfire, Slager told investigators, he realized that Scott had dropped the Taser. In the video, he handcuffed Scott before walking back and picking up the stun gun. He threw the Taser near Scott’s body but picked it up again seconds later.
Prosecutors have cited that as evidence that Slager tried to stage the scene before rethinking it. But the defense used the officers’ testimony to rebut the contention and other elements of the ordeal that prosecutors said showed Slager's malice or evil intent, a requirement of a murder conviction.
The policemen said they were trained to handcuff a wounded suspect and to pick up any weapons off the ground — both attempts to make the scene safe for responding backup officers and paramedics.
Lt. Walter Humphries said an officer like Slager who dropped a Taser next to a suspect would probably pick it up again after realizing a holster is a safer place for the device.
“I would say it’s autopilot more than anything,” Humphries said. “Officers have this weird thing about not wanting to leave a weapon lying around.”
Another alleged component of malice is what prosecutors called Slager's inaccurate telling of what led to the gunfire.
Several of the officers, though, said such “critical incidents” tend to warp their memories. Detective Jerry Jellico said it had happened to him after shooting a suspect who had taken a sheriff’s deputy hostage.
“You’re hyper-focused. You’re stressed,” Jellico said. “When I went to recall the events, I had things messed up.”
But only Dandridge offered an account of what Slager said to him on the day of Scott's death. From their conversation, Dandridge said he sensed what Slager had gone through mentally during the confrontation.
“My understanding was,” he said, “it was instinctive.”
