Bail OK’d for ex-officer charged with killing unarmed man

He’ll stay at an undisclosed location in SC under house arrest until his trial, which is set to begin on Halloween.

A Charleston County sheriff’s spokesman has confirmed that Michael Slager, the former North Charleston police officer charged with murder in the shooting of a black motorist has posted bond and has been released from custody.

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.

Savage also asked what would happen if Roof took a plea deal before his trial date, wondering if Slager’s trial date would move up in response to a tidy conclusion to that high profile case.

“These are hard issues”, he said, according to the AP.

Slager pulled over Scott on April 4, reportedly for a broken brake light.

A bystander recorded the shooting, and the graphic footage sparked outrage and reignited a national conversation around race and policing.

The slain Scott’s uncle, William Scott, echoed the sentiment that Slager would be a threat to the community.

The massacre occurred in the same state just months after Scott was shot to death.

Slager was arrested eight months ago after cell phone video showed him shooting Scott in the back several times after a traffic stop. Scott died at the scene. Wilson has told the judge she feels the trial should be held in November at the earliest. “All I can look at is a pot of flowers”, Walter Scott, the victim’s father, said Monday.

“If we let him out, he’s going to go home to see his wife and children”.

However, prosecutor Scarlett Wilson is also prosecuting Dylann Roof, the white suspect in the killing of nine black parishioners at a Charleston church, in a July trial.

However, the biggest reason why the judge says he granted bond is due to the late trial date.

Scott’s family reportedly gasped as Slager’s family cried in the courtroom as the judge announced their decision to grant bail. “Doing any damage to property or to hurt an innocent individual is not doing anything to help the Scott family; it’s not doing anything that’s going to have an effect on the criminal trial process – the only thing that that can do is land you where office Slager is right now”.