Additional South Carolina police officers may face charges, stemming the from the April 4 incident that left 55-year-old Walter Scott dead. The officers dispatched to the scene in North Charleston reportedly didn’t do enough to save Scott’s life after he was shot.
A recent video, filmed by a passerby with a cellphone, shocked the nation earlier this month as it caught North Charleston police officer Michael Slager shooting Scott in the back five times. Slager now faces murder charges, but CBS reports that other officers dispatched to the scene may face charges after not arriving fast enough and not administering enough help that could have possibly saved Scott’s life.
One officer in particular, Clarence Habersham, has been under scrutiny since the day the video surfaced. Habesham appears in the video shortly after Slager called in for backup. Yet, from the video, Habersham doesn’t seem to offer much assistance to Scott, who laid on the ground, dying from gunshot wounds. The video depicts Habersham kneeling over Scott, but there was no indication that CPR was ever attempted.
Habersham wrote that he “attempted to render aid to the victim by applying pressure to the gunshot wounds,” but going by the 4-minute video footage, critics argue that the police officer didn’t offer as much assistance as he could have, which could have been the difference between life or death.
Other police officers appeared on the scene after Habersham. One of the officers, identified as Sgt. Gann, stated as follows.
“I exited my vehicle and assisted Officer Habersham with first aid and CPR. We continued to perform first aid and CPR until the EMS arrived on scene.”
In a recent press conference, however, North Charleston Police Chief Eddie Driggers told CNN correspondents that he was “sickened ” when he saw the video. Driggers also stated that he doesn’t know if CPR was performed, although several officers indicated that it was.
Meanwhile, a dashcam audio conversation, recorded from Slager’s police cruiser, recently surfaced. Two officers are heard discussing the details of the Scott incident, which has placed them under even more scrutiny.
“By the time you get home, it’d probably be a good idea to kind of jot down your thoughts of what happened. You know, once the adrenalin quits pumpin’ and stuff.”
The conversation leads critics to believe that the officers failed to give full details of what happened to Scott, including Al Sharpton, who feels that Habersham should be arrested for failing to render aid in time.
So far, none of the other officers have been officially charged in the death of Walter Scott, aside from Slager, who is being held at the Charleston County Detention Center on murder charges. He remains there with no bail.