Black man shot by police officer in the back

To shoot someone in the back can only be described as a cowardly act. What happened next to Walter Scott by the police officer who shot him can only be described as despicable.

A North Charleston officer Michael Slager shot Walter Scott in the back eight times as he ran away from a traffic violation in South Carolina. As Mr Scott’s lifeless body lay on the ground the officer walks up to him drops his stun gun next to the body and then calls on the radio and shouts: “Put your hands behind your back now, put your hands behind your back”.

Scott is motionless, his face down on the ground. The officer then appears to shout “Put your hands behind your back” again before picking up Scott’s limp arms and placing them in what look like handcuffs.

This charade was the officer's attempt to portray a struggle to justify a cold-blooded murder. And he may have got away with it had it not been for someone actually filming everything that occurred.

The officer is now under arrest for murder. Given the unequivocal evidence, law enforcement agencies have no room to wriggle their officer out of this one, unlike so many police murders that have occurred in recent years against Black men and boys in the US including Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and Trayvon Martin.

This will also be cold comfort for families in the UK like that of Mark Duggan who was shot dead by an officer whose defence was flatly contradicted by the evidence, including witnesses who claimed that Duggan had no gun when he was shot.

If true justice is to be served in the light of this cold blooded murder then the deaths of a larger number of Black men at the hands of the law enforcement officers both here and the US should be reopened.

Simon Woolley