ACLU Responds to Guilty Verdict for Former Police Officer Michael Slager in Killing of Walter Scott

CHARLESTON – Shaundra Scott, the executive director of the ACLU of South Carolina, had the following response to former police officer Michael Slager’s guilty verdict in the killing of Walter Scott in 2015.

“We are relieved that Michael Slager has at last been held accountable for shooting an unarmed Black man in the back as he was running away. Our hearts still hurt for his family and the city of North Charleston for having to lose Walter Scott over nothing. We feel for the thousands of families across the country who never even get to see criminal charges, let alone trials, against the police officers whose excessive force robbed them of their loved ones.

“We remain resolute in our fight against police brutality and its disastrous impact on people of color. Together with the organizations and individuals that have joined the movement for police reform, we are working towards changes in policing to make officers accountable for using excessive force and to make excessive force itself rare. I hope that this is a step in the right direction in the fight for holding police officers accountable for excessive police practices that result in the murder of unarmed Black people.”