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Bail approved for ex-officer charged in shooting
Posted On Jan 04 2016
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In this image from video, Walter Scott struggles with cops officers officer Michael Thomas Slager in Charleston, S.C., on April. four, 2015.
A white police officer charged with murder in the shooting death of an unarmed black man after a SC traffic stop was released from jail on $500,000 bail on Monday.
Under the judge’s order, he must stay on house detention in SC. Scott was later shot in the back by Slager as he was running away.
According to the terms of his release Slager will be under house arrest and can not have any contact with the family of the victim. Judge Clifton Newman also set the trial date for October 31. The fatal shooting was caught on video by a bystander and intensified a national debate on police treatment of minorities. The cell phone video shows what appeared to be a quick scuffle. Roof will be standing trial for the murder of nine black members of a well-known church in Charleston. In September, the judge ruled that Slager was a flight risk and a danger to the community when his bail was denied.
Defense attorneys argued that Slager was not a flight risk and had been violently attacked by Scott, 50, in a confrontation after Scott fled a routine traffic stop and Slager chased him.
Prosecutor Scarlett Wilson says the trial should be held next November at the earliest.
“If we let him out, he’s going to go home to see his wife and children”. Slager will be released on a $500,000 surety bond.
The website for the jail said Slager was released at 5:23 p.m. Monday. “All I can look at is a pot of flowers”, he said.
Scott’s family also opposed bail, but after the hearing asked the community to remain calm.
Justin Bamberg, an attorney for the family of Walter Scott, said damaging property or hurting innocent people would do nothing to help Scott’s family or affect the trial process, but would only get the perpetrators arrested. “They will now anxiously await Michael Slager’s criminal trial and continue to thank the community for their prayers and support”.
