The South Carolina police officer charged with murdering Walter Scott was the subject of a previous excessive-force complaint after a 2013 incident in which he allegedly used a stun gun multiple times on a man who was then released without charges because police had actually been looking for his brother, the AP reports. The officer, Michael Slager, was officially “exonerated” after an internal review, but wrongfully arrested victim Mario Givens and a witness—the woman who’d originally called 911 on Givens’ brother—say that they were never contacted by investigators. From the story:
“He said he wanted to come in but didn’t say why,” said Givens, now 33. “He never said who he was looking for.”
Then, without warning, Slager pushed in the door, he said.
“Come outside or I’ll tase you,” he quoted the officer as saying, adding: “I didn’t want that to happen to me, so I raised my arms over my head, and when I did, he tased me in my stomach anyway.”
Witness Maleah Kiara Brown says Givens was shocked again after being yanked outside his home. Slager’s official report of the incident says the officer feared Givens “might be holding a weapon” and was “forced to use his stun gun when Givens struggled with him,” in the AP’s words.
