Hear Michael Slager Laugh About Adrenaline ‘Pumping’ In Recording After Walter Scott Shooting

Michael Slager can be heard laughing about his adrenaline “pumping” in a recording made shortly after the now-fired 33-year-old North Charleston, South Carolina, police officer shot 50-year-old dad-of-four, Walter Scott, in the back, killing him.

Slager initially claimed that he feared for his safety because Scott grabbed his taser weapon. But while the nature of the altercation between Slager and Scott remains unclear, a cell phone video released shortly after the shooting clearly showed the officer drawing his handgun and firing eight shots as Scott ran in the opposite direction, with his back turned on Slager.

The video caused widespread horror across the country — though at least one conservative pundit, Charles Johnson, suggested without evidence that the video may have been “doctored.” Slager was quickly charged with murder.

On Sunday, The Guardian newspaper obtained a recording made at the scene of the fatal shooting on April 5, a recording that continues to cast an unfavorable light on the officer. In the recording, Slager appears to laugh when he comments that his adrenaline is “pumping” in the moments after he killed Scott.

In the recording, an unidentified senior police officer briefs Slager on the procedure that the officer will be required to follow after the shooting.

The recording comes from the dashboard camera in Slager’s police cruiser, according to the Guardian account. Guardian reporter Jon Swaine posted the digitized recording to the audio site SoundCloud, and the recording can be heard on this page, above.

After telling Slager go home and “take your crap off, take your vest off, kind of relax for two or three,” the senior officer then suggests that Slager make a written record of the shooting as he recalled it.

“By the time you get home, it would probably be a good idea to kind of jot down your thoughts on what happened,” the other cop tells Michael Slager. “You know, once the adrenaline quits pumping.”

Slager then replies, “It’s pumping!”

The accused shooter can then be heard laughing and exclaiming, “Oh yeah, oh yeah.”

The senior officer tells Slager what he can expect from investigators after the shooting, which isn’t much.

“They’re gonna tell you you’re gonna be out for a couple of days and you’ll come back and they’ll interview you then.” he tells Michael Slager in the recording. “They’re not going to ask you any kind of questions right now. They’ll take your weapon and we’ll go from there. That’s pretty much it.”

[Image: YouTube Screen Capture]