CHARLESTON, S.C.: Former North Charleston patrolman Michael Slager choked back tears Tuesday, testifying in his own defense that he felt “total fear” when the black motorist he was chasing from a traffic stop got control of his Taser and pointed it at him.
Slager, 35, faces 30 years to life if convicted of murder in the shooting death of 50-year-old Walter Scott, who managed to break away and run dozens of feet from the officer and his stun gun before falling to the ground with five bullets in his back. The defense rested its case late Tuesday, and closing arguments are planned for Wednesday.
The April 4, 2015, shooting stunned the nation after a bystander captured the scene on a cellphone video.
“My family has been destroyed by it. The Scott family has been destroyed by it. It’s horrible,” he said.
Slager, who is white, testified in a subdued voice that he had pulled Scott over for a broken taillight and was preparing to write him a warning ticket when Scott bolted from his car, ran down a road and into a vacant lot.
Slager described yelling “stop” and “Taser! Taser! Taser!” as he caught up to Scott.
He said he shot his Taser three times.
Slager said Scott fell to the ground after he fired the second time, and he tried to subdue him, pushing him down with an elbow while holding the Taser in one hand and reaching for his radio to call for backup with the other. That was when Scott grabbed the stun gun, he said.
“He rips it out of my hand,” Slager said.
“I knew I was in trouble,” he testified, adding that Scott “was extending his right arm, leaning forward and coming at me.”
“I was scared” and in “total fear that Mr. Scott didn’t stop” resisting arrest, Slager said.
The video begins at roughly this point, showing Scott breaking away from what Slager said was their confrontation over the Taser.
“At that point I pulled my firearm and pulled the trigger,” he said. “I fired until the threat was stopped as I was trained to do.”
Once the mortally wounded Scott fell to the ground, Slager walked up and handcuffed his body.
“I didn’t know if I hit him. I didn’t know if he tripped or fell,” Slager said, adding “you always handcuff a suspect — always.”