United States police shooting leads to city council settlement

The agreement is the third settlement of approximately $6 million reached in the past year with families of black men killed by police.

Scott, 50, was shot April 4 by North Charleston police officer Michael Slager. State Circuit Judge Clifton Newman denied him bond last month, writing that his possible release “would constitute an unreasonable danger to the community”. “This will allow us to move forward and focus on the issues our citizens have elected us to do – advance quality of life and make the future brighter for the citizens of North Charleston”.

Scott’s family said that a portion of the settlement will be donated to assist in flooding relief in the state.

The North Charleston City Council voted, 10-0, on Thursday to approve the payment to the family of Walter Scott, according to the Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C. Members of Scott’s family attended the meeting.

Mr Slager continues to be detained in solitary confinement. The video, replayed across the country, captured national attention and underscored increasing tension between white police officers and black men.

Civil lawsuits brought by the families of Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Akai Gurley in New York City, and Michael Brown in Ferguson are ongoing.

“The city of Charleston’s actions have ensured that Walter did not die in vain”, he said.

Slager has claimed in an interview with NBC that there had been a struggle in which Scott had tried to take the officer’s taser, and that Slager had no way of knowing Scott was unarmed. In other cities, the deaths of blacks at the hands of law enforcement officers have been met with violence.

“It’s historic”, Chris Stewart, a Scott family attorney, told the Washington Post. “But I thank them for what they did”, Scott’s mother, Judy, tells Reuters. “It’s a lot of money but we had to realistically face the fact that the potential for a very large verdict was there because of the video and because we have a police officer who is charged with murder”. There were no aggravating circumstances such as robbery or kidnapping, so the death penalty doesn’t apply in the case, the prosecutor has said.