Local Reaction to SC Officer Involved Shooting
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Cell phone video captures the confrontation.
It all began Tuesday when North Charleston police officer Michael Slager was charged with murder after video showed him shooting a man in the back as he tried to flee.
Slager originally claimed the shooting was in self-defense.
Charleston’s mayor announced today that he has been fired from the police force, and Slager’s former chief condemned his actions.
Sheriff Derrick Cunningham says his reaction is like most people’s.
“Wow. You see something like that and your curiousity goes up,” said Sheriff Derrick Cunningham.
The video has many people shocked and saddened to see the officer opening fire on someone that was not allegedly a threat.
“It’s too many people being killed and somebody saying I was fearing for my life. If I was to go and do something and tell somebody I was fearing for my life, it’d be a different circumstance,” said Duran Tolbert.
While the video makes some more skeptical of law enforcement, others hope this is not a trend.
“I think at the end of the day we know there are bad apples, bad doctors, bad policemen, bad news people. But you are hoping the people trying to take care of you are there for the right reason. Definitely need to be careful and have these things investigated,” said Chris Duggar.
Sheriff Cunningham says it’s things like this incident that gives their profession a bad reputation.
“Anytime you have a situation like this it casts a bad shadow on everybody in law enforcement. But we don’t want that to take place. It behooves us to have a connection with the community,” said Cunningham.
That’s why he says incidents like this can be learning lessons for all of them.
“We talk about it, we train. What you don’t want to do is take this job and make it personal. This job is not personal,” said Cunningham.
