Protests begin over officer's shooting of black man in US

In the United States, demonstrators have gathered in the city of North Charleston to protest at the fatal shooting of a black man by a white police officer.

A video of the shooting appears to show officer Michael Slager shooting 50-year-old Walter Scott in the back as he runs away.

* Warning readers may find this video distressing as it contains graphic violence.

The policeman has now been charged with murder.

Mr Scott's parents called the shooting horrible, with his father saying it looked as if the officer was trying to "kill a deer running through the woods''.

Judy Scott told ABC’s Good Morning America that she almost could not look at the video. She said it tore her heart to pieces.

Walter Scott Sr told NBC’s Today Show that his son may have run after being pulled over for a traffic stop because he owed child support and did not want to go back to jail.

The father said he does not know if the shooting was racially motivated.

The dramatic video had emerged earlier today and led authorities to file a murder charge against the officer.

It comes amid public outrage over a series of deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of law enforcement agents.

The video, provided to the dead man’s family and lawyer by an unidentified person, shows North Charleston patrolman Michael Thomas Slager firing eight shots at the back of Walter Lamer Scott as he runs away. The 50-year-old man falls after the eighth shot, fired after a brief pause.

North Charleston mayor Keith Summey announced the charge at a news conference in which he said Slager had made “a bad decision”.

Authorities said Mr Scott was shot after the officer had already hit the man with a stun gun after a traffic stop on Saturday that began over a faulty brake light.

“When you’re wrong, you’re wrong,” Mr Summey told reporters. “When you make a bad decision, don’t care if you’re behind the shield or a citizen on the street, you have to live with that decision.”

Slager, who has been with North Charleston police for five years, was denied bond at a first appearance hearing. He was not accompanied by a lawyer. If convicted, he could face 30 years to life in prison.

The shooting comes amid ongoing public issues of trust between law enforcement and minority communities after such prominent deaths as those of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner on Staten Island, New York.

A grand jury declined to indict Ferguson officer Darren Wilson over the fatal shooting of Mr Brown last August, leading to nationwide protests.

A local Black Lives Matter group, formed after Mr Brown’s death, planned a demonstration at North Charleston City Hall.

Mr Scott’s family and their lawyer, L Chris Stewart, called for calm and peaceful protests. They said the murder charge showed that the justice system is working in this case.

Stewart said the video forced authorities to act quickly and decisively. “What if there was no video? What if there was no witness, or hero as I call him, to come forward?” asked Stewart.

Slager’s then-lawyer David Aylor had released a statement on Monday saying the officer felt threatened and that Mr Scott was trying to grab Slager’s stun gun. Mr Aylor dropped Slager as a client after the video surfaced.

The video prompted condemnations from law-and-order Republican leaders in South Carolina.

Governor Nikki Haley issued a statement saying Slager’s actions were not acceptable and did not reflect the state’s values or “the way most of our law enforcement officials act”.

Republican US Senator Tim Scott, the only black US senator from a Southern state, called the shooting unnecessary and avoidable. “My heart aches for the family and our North Charleston community. I will be watching this case closely,” he wrote on Twitter.

Mr Scott may have tried to run from the officer because he owed child support, which can lead to jail time in South Carolina until it is paid, Stewart said. Mr Scott had four children, was engaged and had no violent offences on his record, the lawyer said.

In a separate case in South Carolina, a white police officer who killed a 68-year-old black man last year in his driveway has been charged with a felony: discharging a gun into an occupied vehicle.

A prosecutor previously tried to indict North Augusta officer Justin Craven on a manslaughter charge over the February 2014 death of Ernest Satterwhite. But a grand jury instead chose misconduct in office, a far lesser charge.

Craven chased Mr Satterwhite for nine miles beyond city limits to the man’s driveway in Edgefield County. After Mr Satterwhite parked, the officer repeatedly fired through the driver-side door, prosecutors said. The 25-year-old officer faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.