The grieving parents of a black man fatally shot in the back by a white South Carolina cop – who was promptly charged with murder – appeared on TV shows Wednesday morning to express their shock and mourn their son.
"That was the most horrible thing I've even seen," Walter Scott's mom, Judy, said on ABC's "Good Morning America" about a bystander's chilling video showing the fateful encounter.
"I am very, very upset. I almost couldn't look at it. To see my son running defenselessly – being shot – just tore me to pieces and I pray that this never happens to another person. This has to stop."
Appearing on NBC's "Today," her husband, Walter Scott Sr., said he saw no reason for Police Officer Michael Slager to use deadly force against his 50-year-old son after the traffic stop in North Charleston.
"I raised my children better than that," the dad said quietly. "My son knew better. When I saw that, I said to myself, 'No, I know that's not true because Walter … whatever (the cop) said to do, Walter would've done it."
Asked why his son was running away from Slager, 33, Scott Sr. said he thought it was because of child support.
"I believe he didn't want to go to jail … he just ran away," he said about his son, a father of four and a Coast Guard vet.
Scott Sr. said he didn't know whether race played a factor in the slaying.
"The way I saw it on the film, the way he was shooting that gun it looked like he was trying to kill a deer or something running through the woods. I don't know if it was racial or something was wrong with his head or what."
Warning: The following video contains graphic content
The dad expressed his relief that the killing was caught on video – and thanked God that the passer-by recorded it.
"They would have swept it under the rug like they did many others," he said. "I was telling some of my friends the other day that God has my back because when I saw (the video) I fell off my feet. My heart was broken and I said, 'No, it can't be.' When I saw it I just couldn't take it anymore."
The damning video — released by the Scott family's attorney Tuesday — shows the cop firing multiple rounds into Scott's back as the victim was fleeing.
"Shots fired and the subject is down. He took my Taser," Slager says on his radio.
Scott falls to the ground about 20 feet from Slager, who then slowly approaches him — and puts him in handcuffs. He then jogs back to the spot where he opened fire, picks up the Taser and apparently drops it next to Scott's body.
Slager's attorney initially told Tampa, Fla., TV station WFLA that Slager was being overpowered by Scott, and the cop fired because he felt threatened.
But after the video surfaced, the lawyer, David Aylor of Charleston, said he would no longer represent Slager and called the shooting a "terrible tragedy that has impacted our community."
The Scotts' attorney, L. Chris Stewart of Atlanta, said on "Good Morning America" that they plan to file a "major civil lawsuit against all the responsible parties in this tragedy."
The shooting took place in the wake of cases in Ferguson, Mo., and Staten Island in which black men died in confrontations with white cops – incidents that have sparked a national debate about police conduct.
Meanwhile, protests were planned Wednesday in North Charleston, led by Black Lives Matter, a group formed after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson.
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