NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — A white South Carolina police officer who claimed he killed a black man in self-defense has been fired and faces murder charges after a bystander's video recorded him firing eight shots at the man's back as he ran away. The city's mayor also said he's ordered body cameras to be worn by every single officer on the force. 
 
 In this April 4, 2015, frame from video provided by attorney L. Chris Stewart representing the family of Walter Lamer Scott, city patrolman Michael Thomas Slager checks Scott's pulse in North Charleston,... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this April 4, 2015, frame from video provided by Attorney L. Chris Stewart representing the family of Walter Lamer Scott, Scott runs away from city patrolman Michael Thomas Slager, right, in North... (Associated Press) 
 
 A man holds a sign during a protest for the shooting death of Walter Scott at city hall in North Charleston, S.C., Wednesday, April 8, 2015. Scott was killed by a North Charleston police officer after... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this undated photo provided by the North Charleston Police Department shows City Patrolman Michael Thomas Slager. Slager has been charged with murder in the shooting death of a black motorist after... (Associated Press) 
 
 This photo provided by the Charleston County, S.C., Sheriff's Office shows Patrolman Michael Thomas Slager on Tuesday, April 7, 2015. Slager has been charged with murder in the shooting death of a black... (Associated Press) 
 
 Rodney Scott, left, and his brother, Anthony Scott, appear at a news conference in Charleston, S.C., on Tuesday, April 7, 2015. The brother of the two men, Walter Lamer Scott, was shot and killed by a... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this April 4, 2015 photo, investigators collect evidence at the scene following an officer involved shooting in North Charleston, S.C. City Patrolman Michael Thomas Slager was charged with murder Tuesday,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Rev. Arthur Prioleau holds a sign during a protest in the shooting death of Walter Scott at city hall in North Charleston, S.C., Wednesday, April 8, 2015. Scott was killed by a North Charleston police... (Associated Press) 
 
 The officer, Michael Thomas Slager, has been fired, but the town will continue to pay for his health insurance because his wife is eight-month's pregnant, said North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey, who called it a tragedy for two families. 
 
 Police Chief Eddie Diggers said he was "sickened" by what he saw on the video, but his explanations were repeatedly interrupted by shouts of "no justice, no peace!" and other hard questions that he said he couldn't answer. The mayor then took back the podium and threatened to close the news conference. 
 
 Protests began within hours of the murder charge against Slager, which was announced Tuesday, the same day the video was released to the media. About 75 people gathered outside City Hall in North Charleston, led by a Black Lives Matter, a group formed after the fatal shooting of another black man in Ferguson, Missouri. 
 
 "Eight shots in the back!" local organizer Muhiydin D'Baha hollered through a bullhorn, and the crowd yelled "In the back!" in response. 
 
 The video recorded by an unidentified bystander shows North Charleston Patrolman Michael Thomas Slager dropping his stun gun, pulling out his handgun and firing at Walter Lamer Scott from a distance as he runs away. The 50-year-old man falls after the eighth shot, fired after a brief pause. 
 
 The dead man's father, Walter Scott Sr. said Wednesday that the officer "looked like he was trying to kill a deer running through the woods." He also told NBC's "Today Show" that his son may have tried to flee because he owed child support and didn't want to go back to jail. 
 
 The video is "the most horrible thing I've ever seen," said Judy Scott, the slain man's mother, on ABC's "Good Morning America." 
 
 "I almost couldn't look at it to see my son running defenselessly, being shot. It just tore my heart to pieces," she said. 
 
 The bystander is assisting investigators after providing the video to Scott's family and lawyers. 
 
 Deflecting many of the questions from a hostile audience at Wednesday's news conference, Summey said state investigators have the case. 
 
 Police initially released a statement that promised a full investigation but relied largely on the officer's description of the confrontation, which began with a traffic stop Saturday as Slager pulled Scott over for a faulty brake light. 
 
 Slager's then-attorney David Aylor released another statement Monday saying the officer felt threatened and fired because Scott was trying to grab his stun gun. 
 
 Aylor dropped Slager as a client after the video surfaced, and the officer, a five-year veteran with the North Charleston police, appeared without a lawyer at his first appearance Tuesday. He was denied bond and could face 30 years to life in prison if convicted of murder. 
 
 The shooting comes amid a plunge in trust between law enforcement and minorities after the officer-involved killings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner on Staten Island, New York. Nationwide protests intensified after grand juries declined to indict the officers in both cases. 
 
 "We have to take a stand on stuff like this ... we can't just shake our heads at our computer screens," said Lance Braye, 23, who helped organize Wednesday's demonstration. 
 
 Scott's family and their attorney, L. Chris Stewart, appealed to keep the protests peaceful, saying the swift murder charge shows that the justice system is working so far in this case. 
 
 But Stewart said the video alone forced authorities to act decisively. 
 
 "What if there was no video? What if there was no witness, or hero as I call him, to come forward?" asked Stewart, adding that the family plans to sue the police. 
 
 The video, shot over a chain link fence and through some trees, begins after Scott has left his car. Slager follows him, reaching at the man with an object that appears to be a stun gun. As Scott pulls away, the object falls to the ground and Slager pulls out his handgun as Scott runs away. 
 
 The final shot sends Scott falling face-down about 30 feet away. Slager then slowly walks toward him and orders Scott to put his hands behind his back, but the man doesn't move, so he pulls Scott's arms back and cuffs his hands. The officer then walks briskly back to where he fired the shots, speaking into his radio. He picks up the same object that fell to the ground before and returns to Scott's prone body, dropping the object near Scott's feet as another officer enters the scene. 
 
 Scott had four children, was engaged and had been honorably discharged from the U.S. Coast Guard. There were no violent offenses on his record, Stewart said. He also speculated that Scott may have tried to run because he owed child support, which can lead to jail time in South Carolina until it is paid. 
 
 The FBI and the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division are investigating as well. Proving that an officer willfully deprived an individual of his or her civil rights has historically been a tall burden for federal prosecutors, particularly when an officer uses force during a rapidly unfolding physical confrontation in which split-second decisions are made. 
 
 The Justice Department spent months investigating the Ferguson shooting before declining to prosecute Officer Darren Wilson in that case. But it's easier to make cases against officers who use force as an act of retribution or who can make no reasonable claim that their life was in jeopardy when they took action. 
 
 North Charleston is South Carolina's third-largest city, and its population is about half black. Its economy slumped after the Charleston Naval Base on the city's waterfront closed in the mid-1990s, but the city has bounced back with a huge investment by Boeing, which now employs about 7,500 people in the state and builds 787 aircraft in city. 
 
 Braye accused North Charleston police of habitually harass blacks for minor offenses. He hopes the video will help people understand that some officers will lie to save themselves when they do wrong. 
 
 "This needs to be the last case," Braye said. "All you have to do is look at the story that was told before the video came out." 
 
 _____ 
 
 Smith reported from Charleston, South Carolina. Contributors include Tom Foreman Jr. in Charlotte, North Carolina and Eric Tucker in Washington. ||||| The brother of South Carolina police shooting victim Walter Scott says the white cop “was using my brother for target practice." 
 
 "It was totally senseless," Rodney Scott told the Daily News on Wednesday. "I mean, eight shots? That was totally cold-hearted murder as far as I'm concerned." 
 
 Scott's brother spoke out after Officer Michael Slager was fired by the North Charleston Police Department for fatally shooting the unarmed black man in the back on Saturday. 
 
 Slager was charged with murder on Tuesday after a sickening cellphone video of him killing Scott surfaced. 
 
 “We were shocked, definitely shocked" by the video, Rodney Scott said. "I'm angry, but he's going to have to give an account for what he did, that was just a horrible thing that he did." 
 
 Rodney Scott, 48, said he will bury his brother — a father of four and a U.S. Coast Guard veteran — on Saturday. He said he doesn’t believe Slager’s claim that he stopped his brother because of a broken brake light. 
 
 Walter Scott had been a member of the U.S. Coast Guard. (U.s. coast guard ) 
 
 “I knew my brother was always on the run for child support,” he said. “He made sure in every vehicle that all the lights were working. He would say, ‘I don't want to get stopped by police’.” 
 
 S.C. COP MICHAEL SLAGER CHARGED WITH MURDER OF WALTER SCOTT 
 
 But the grieving Scott brother said he would pray for Slager. 
 
 "I hope he can make his peace with God knowing he hurt a family," he said. "He made a bad choice. All I can say is he has to get it right with God and I hope he can." 
 
 Scott, 50, was engaged to the mother of University of Mississippi defensive end Fadol Brown, who considered him a father figure. 
 
 “Walter Scott was my step dad,” Brown tweeted. “I loved him to death that cop didn't have to shoot him down like a dog like that ... gone miss you man.” 
 
 Slager, 33, was arrested Tuesday after the telltale video was released by the Scott family's lawyer and contradicted the account he gave his superiors, including his claim that he "feared for his life." 
 
 The FBI and U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights division are now investigating the killing of Scott, who was shot five times — four times in the back, once in the ear. 
 
 Also, the North Charleston Police Department has turned over its investigation to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, or SLED. 
 
 Investigators on Thursday are expected to release the dash-cam video from Slager’s police car that could shed new light on what happened just before shooting when the officer stopped Scott for a broken brake light. 
 
 Rodney Scott (l.) and his brother Anthony Scott appear at a news conference in Charleston, S.C., on Tuesday. "That was totally cold-hearted murder as far as I'm concerned," Rodney Scott told the Daily News about his brother Walter's death. (Bruce Smith/AP) 
 
 Slager, who faces 30 years to life in prison if convicted, remains jailed without bond. Like Scott, he too is a Coast Guard vet. 
 
 The cellphone video was taken by a young man NBC identified as Feidin Santana, who said he saw Scott and the officer struggling “on the ground” and the sound of a Taser before he recorded the fatal shooting. 
 
 “They would have swept it under the rug like they have with many others," Walter Scott Sr. told NBC's "Today" show earlier Wednesday. "And I thank God that this young man, whoever it was, had the video ... When I saw it, I just fell off my feet and my heart was broken." 
 
 The dead man's mom called the disturbing footage "the most horrible thing I've ever seen." 
 
 "I almost couldn't look at it to see my son running defenselessly, being shot," Judy Scott said on ABC's "Good Morning America." "It just tore my heart to pieces." 
 
 The scene where police-shooting victim Walter Scott, 50, was killed on Wednesday in North Charleston, S.C. North Charleston police officer Michael Slager was charged Tuesday with murder after shooting and killing Scott during a traffic stop last Saturday. (James Keivom/New York Daily News) 
 
 In New York City, Mayor de Blasio said the footage was horrific. "It's difficult to look at something like that and watch someone's life taken away before your very eyes," he said. 
 
 Despite the footage, an Indiegogo campaign supporting Slager has raised $300 out of a $5,000 goal. 
 
 But what happened in North Charleston points out the need for body cameras for police officers. 
 
 "If the citizen has done something wrong, that's captured on film," he said. "If the officer's done something wrong, it creates accountability." 
 
 The NYPD is in the midst of a pilot program to test out the technology. 
 
 Judy and Walter Scott Sr., Walter Scott's parents, speak on the "Today" show Wednesday about their son's death and the arrest of police officer Michael Slager. (Today Show) 
 
 Meanwhile, protesters demanding justice for Scott briefly stopped traffic outside City Hall in North Charleston while dozens of demonstrators carrying signs that read "Black Lives Matter" rallied. 
 
 But there was no outbreak of the kind of violence that rocked Ferguson, Mo., after black teenager Michael Brown was killed by a white officer. 
 
 Charleston County Sheriff Al Cannon waded into the midst of the protesters to calm tensions and keep the peace. 
 
 "We have to take a stand on stuff like this," said 23-year-old Lance Braye. "We can't just shake our heads at our computer screens." 
 
 "It was just a traffic stop," said Nicole King, who said she was a friend of Scott's fiancée. "It could have been any of us." 
 
 An Indiegogo campaign set up to support Officer Michael Slager has been set up, having earned $300 as of the time of writing. (www.indiegogo.com) 
 
 Others streamed to the empty lot where Scott was killed. 
 
 “You change your attitude immediately if you’re coming here from downtown Charleston,” said 48-year-old P. Crable Washington. “It’s a different vibe here and it isn’t good.” 
 
 EDITORIAL: THE CRIMINAL KILLING OF WALTER SCOTT 
 
 Earlier, North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey and Police Chief Eddie Driggers paid condolences to Scott's distraught parents. 
 
 "I got to meet a daddy who is in mourning, a momma who is in mourning," Driggers said afterward at a press conference that was interrupted at times by angry outbursts. "We're gonna continue to strive to do what's right. I have been praying for peace, peace for the family and peace for this community." 
 
 Walter Scott, 50, was running away when he was shot by a police officer. (Facebook) Michael Slager, 33, faces a murder charge and is held without bond. (NCPD) 
 
 Driggers added that he was "sickened" by what he saw on the video. But neither he nor Summey delved into the details of the investigation. 
 
 “We’re still waiting for all the information to come back to us," said Summey, who has issued an order requiring all of his city’s cops to start wearing body cameras. 
 
 Summey added that Slager’s wife is eight months pregnant and the city will cover her insurance until after the baby is born. The couple also have two step-children. 
 
 The fatal encounter began at 9:30 a.m. Saturday when Slager pulled over Scott. 
 
 Slager claimed he opened fire after he struggled with Scott and the victim ran off with his Taser. 
 
 Anthony Scott, left, hugs visitors outside his home near North Charleston, S.C., on Wednesday. His brother Walter Scott was killed by a North Charleston police officer after a traffic stop Saturday. (Chuck Burton/AP) 
 
 The video, however, told a different tale. 
 
 In it, Scott — dressed in a green shirt and jeans — was seen running away and at least 15 feet from Slager when the officer fired the first of eight shots. 
 
 "Shots fired!" Slager said into his radio as he closed in on Scott. 
 
 Then, as Slager circled Scott, who was lying facedown and not moving, he shouted, "Put your hands behind your back!" 
 
 Slager then cuffed the Scott's hands before jogging back to where he had been before and picking something off the ground. 
 
 Walter Scott lies facedown at the feet of North Charleston cop Michael Slager, who was charged with murder Tuesday. Video shows Officer Michael Slager unleash a hail of bullets at the fleeing 50-year-old Walter Scott. (HANDOUT) This image from a video shows Officer Michael Slager shooting Walter Scott in the back as he ran away. Slager appears to pick something up. Officer Michael Slager appears to be holding something. Officer Michael Slager fatally appears to drop the item he was previously holding. 
 
 By then another cop had arrived at the scene and when Slager returned to Scott he dropped an object — apparently the stun gun — by his body. 
 
 The police report stated responding officers performed CPR on Scott. There was no sign of anybody performing CPR on Scott in the video. 
 
 Scott had been arrested 10 times in the past, mostly for not paying child support. Back in 1987, he was busted on an assault and battery charge and convicted in 1991 of possession of a bludgeon, The Post & Courier newspaper In Charleston, S.C., reported. 
 
 Scott's kin said he was not a violent man. And his killing stirred memories of the fatal Brown shooting and the chokehold death of Eric Garner on Staten Island at the hands of an NYPD officer. 
 
 Roughly 80% of North Charleston’s police officers are white in a city where blacks account for 47% of the more than 100,000 residents, according to the most recent DOJ figures. 
 
 Many Scott supporters complained Wednesday that North Charleston's mostly white police force routinely harasses the city's black residents for minor traffic offenses. 
 
 WALTER SCOTT VIDEO: CELEBS SHARE OUTRAGE ONLINE 
 
 Those claims were buttressed by a report in The Post & Courier which found that in 2010 that black drivers in North Charleston were involved in 65% of all traffic stops that didn't involve a ticket or an arrest. 
 
 That's about 25,000 stops, the paper reported. 
 
 “I am not surprised at the shooting,” Rep. James Clyburn, the state’s only Democrat on Capitol Hill, said on MSNBC. 
 
 Riffing off Driggers’ statement that his cops are like his children, Clyburn added: "There comes a time in dealing with our children when we have to have some tough love and I think that this calls for some tough love in this instance.” 
 
 Ed Bryant, president of the North Charleston chapter of the NAACP, said relations with the police have improved since Driggers took over two years ago but problems still remain with the beat cops. 
 
 “There has been a good conversation at the top,” Bryant said. “But nothing has changed at the bottom level.” 
 
 Slager is the third South Carolina cop to be hit in recent years with a criminal charge for killing an unarmed black man. 
 
 One of those cases in ongoing and the charge against that officer was reduced on Tuesday to shooting into an occupied vehicle — a misdemeanor. 
 
 Scott, left, appears to be running away from Slager, right. 
 
 The officer in the other case was cleared by the feds of criminal wrongdoing but his department agreed to pay a $400,000 settlement to the victim’s family. 
 
 Over the past five years, Palmetto State police officers shot at 209 suspects — less than half of them black, according to an analysis from The State, a newspaper based in the state capital of Columbia. 
 
 But only “a few” police officers were accused of shooting illegally and none were convicted, the paper reported. 
 
 In 2014, state prosecutors brought excessive force charges against three white officers who were involved in the shooting of black drivers. But only one case went to trial, and it ended with a hung jury, The State reported. 
 
 The Rev. Al Sharpton commended the North Charleston police for arresting Slager but said more needs to be done. 
 
 “When a black man is stopped for a broken taillight and ends up being shot multiple times in the back, it is yet another reminder that we need a national strategy to implement real and meaningful police reform now," he said. "We simply can't rely on citizens with video cameras to make sure justice is served.” 
 
 The tragedy found Sharpton on the same page with both of South Carolina’s conservative Republican senators. 
 
 “The horrific video is very difficult to watch and deeply troubling on many fronts,” Sen. Lindsey Graham said, who added that it did not “accurately reflect” the actions of most cops. 
 
 Earlier, Sen. Tim Scott called it a “senseless” shooting that was “absolutely unnecessary and avoidable.” 
 
 ON A MOBILE DEVICE? WATCH THE VIDEO HERE. 
 
 With Celeste Katz, Rocco Parascandola, Matthew Lysiak ||||| North Charleston has struggled since its inception with mistrust and tension between citizens and police as it tries to find a delicate balance between public safety and civil rights in a community beset with violent crime. 
 
 Wednesday's developments City buys 150 body cameras in addition to 101 state-funded cameras already ordered. Mayor vows to start community discussion this spring about police policies as federal civil-rights probe continues. 200 people attend peaceful protest as some block traffic near City Hall for 15 minutes. Man who filmed shooting tells NBC News that Slager and Scott were struggling on ground before video started. Coroner confirms all of Scott's five bullet wounds hit him from behind. Police say Slager was carrying a .45-caliber Glock 21 and a Taser X26. Agencies release radio communications but hold on to dashboard video that could show traffic stop. Slager placed in protective custody at Charleston County jail. Solicitor Scarlett Wilson announces plans to pursue indictment in May, saying she would hold “accountable those who harm others unlawfully, regardless of profession.” High-powered Charleston attorney Andy Savage files court papers to represent Slager. The Rev. Al Sharpton says that he will visit North Charleston “very soon” and that shooting demands police reform because community “can't rely on citizens with video cameras to make sure justice is served.” S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson calls this “a difficult and emotional time for our state” U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham says shooting was “deeply troubling on many fronts.” 
 
 The state’s third-largest city has pockets of deep, entrenched poverty and neighborhoods where gunfire has been a familiar visitor in the night. But attempts to quell the crime, which for three years landed North Charleston among the nation’s most dangerous cities, brought about cries of racial profiling and unfair treatment of minorities — particularly of young, black men. 
 
 Read more: For complete coverage of the Walter Scott shooting, go to postandcourier.com/Walter-Scott. 
 
 Years-long efforts to bridge that divide and smooth relations with the community took a deep hit this week with the arrest of Patrolman 1st Class Michael T. Slager, accused of gunning down an apparently unarmed, fleeing black man after a traffic stop. Slager, who is white, is charged with murder in 50-year-old Walter L. Scott’s death. 
 
 A protest outside City Hall remained peaceful Wednesday morning, but demonstrators drowned out Mayor Keith Summey during an afternoon news conference with chants demanding justice and questioning the city’s struggle to hire minority police officers. The department is about 18 percent black in a city that is 45 percent black. 
 
 While the FBI has opened a civil rights probe into the shooting, Summey vowed to discuss with residents whether the city’s policing tactics and policies should be changed. He also announced that the city Wednesday bought 150 body-worn cameras in light of Scott’s death that will complement the 101 cameras it had already ordered through a state grant. He didn’t say when the city would get the shipment of 251 cameras that will outfit every uniformed patrol officer. 
 
 State Rep. David Mack, a North Charleston Democrat who is black, was a speaker a few years ago in classes on cultural sensitivity that were mandated for all new officers. It was a program designed to help them better understand policing from the perspective of those they serve. Mack thought the classes made a difference, but a video of Scott’s shooting that emerged Tuesday shows that the Police Department still has its issues, he said. 
 
 “It’s an ongoing battle,” he said. “I think we have made progress, but this incident ... wounded the community tremendously.” 
 
 The footage, which was shot by a passerby, spread rapidly worldwide after The Post and Courier first broke the news of the evidence that contradicted Slager’s account. Though it showed the officer shooting Scott in the back, it left some questions unanswered and sparked speculation of what happened. 
 
 A spokesman from the State Law Enforcement Division, which is tasked with an independent investigation, said he couldn’t answer those questions because the probe wasn’t finished. SLED has dashboard camera footage from Slager’s car, which could explain why Scott’s Mercedes-Benz was pulled over but would not show anything about the shooting, the spokesman, Thom Berry, said. Berry did not respond Wednesday to a request for the video. 
 
 Police Chief Eddie Driggers also wouldn’t clarify whether the video showed Slager picking up his Taser X26 and dropping it near Scott’s body. The officer has said that Scott had taken the device from him and tried to use it. 
 
 Driggers also was uncertain whether his officers performed CPR on Scott. 
 
 “I’m going to be totally honest with you,” he said of the footage, “I was sickened by what I saw.” 
 
 After Scott is buried, the city’s mayor said he would open up police procedures for a discussion, a process he said Driggers had been working on for two years. 
 
 “We will be ... looking for ways to develop a closer relationship with the individual communities,” Summey said. “We will look at ways to enhance the quality of service we provide to our citizens, and by that, I mean all our citizens.” 
 
 But if history is any guide, the road to restoring trust could be an arduous path. That problem was clear during the news conference when residents interrupted Summey several times with chants. 
 
 “How are you the mayor?” one man yelled. “Nobody respects you.” 
 
 The conference was punctuated with chants of “the mayor gotta go” and “no justice, no peace.” Some people in the crowd were familiar with the sentiment. 
 
 A difficult history 
 
 Old-timers in the Police Department used to share stories of bare-knuckled brawls as outnumbered officers waded into packed and unruly roadhouses to restore order in the days after the city formed in 1975. Outmanned and hemmed in, they found it safer to subdue and ask questions later. It was a question of survival, they said. 
 
 The department has come a long way since those days and is now a nationally accredited institution, priding itself on professional rules and policies that have withstood expert scrutiny. But questions have lingered through the years about the methods employed by the rank-and-file to keep the peace — particularly in regard to using deadly force against black residents. 
 
 “We want the world to understand that this is not an isolated incident,” protester Muhiyidin d’Baha said at the demonstration Wednesday morning in front of City Hall. “This has been a reality that has been in the North Charleston Police Department for many, many years.” 
 
 In October 2000, for example, protesters took to the streets after the police shooting death of Edward Snowden in a Dorchester Road video store. Snowden, a black man who was being attacked by four white men, was shot by police after they arrived and found him holding a gun. Police were cleared of wrongdoing, though the city later settled a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Snowden’s family for about $70,000. 
 
 Racial tensions rose again after the November 2003 fatal shooting of Asberry Wylder, a black shoplifting suspect with a history of mental illness. Police shot Wylder after he plunged a knife into an officer’s protective vest during a confrontation outside a Rivers Avenue supermarket. Some witnesses said Wylder was beaten and shot a second time after he was handcuffed on the ground. The state’s probe found nothing to indicate that the police acted improperly, but that conclusion won little acceptance in the black community. 
 
 Tensions continued to simmer as the pressure to drive down crime intensified when the city racked up 55 killings between the start of 2006 and the end of 2007. That led to Washington-based CQ Press ranking North Charleston among the Top 10 most-dangerous cities in the nation. 
 
 Desperate to shake the distinction, city officials enacted a policy of aggressive patrolling: incessant stops of motorists for minor violations, seemingly random interviews with residents and a virtual police occupation of neighborhoods in the days just after violence occurred. 
 
 The idea was to create constant contact with residents of the most troubled areas in the city, tamping down the opportunities for crime while establishing sources to help investigators solve cases. The strategy seemed to work. By 2010, the number of people slain had fallen to five, and the city tumbled off the upper reaches of the infamous list of perilous places to live. 
 
 Striking a balance 
 
 Critics, however, insisted that those gains had come with a steep cost to civil liberties, particularly for black residents who constituted the majority of those subjected to stops and field questioning. Between 2008 and early 2012, 120 complaints were lodged against the Police Department, with the majority of the complaints coming from blacks. 
 
 Then-Police Chief Jon Zumalt tried numerous approaches to easing the tensions on this front, from the cultural sensitivity classes that Mack participated in to a program called “Sell the Stop” in which officers were trained to politely explain to residents the necessity of pulling them over. But the drumbeat of criticism continued through Zumalt’s tenure. 
 
 Like the chief who took over for him, Zumalt said in an interview Wednesday that he was sickened by what he saw on the video of Scott’s death, which he called “heartbreaking.” 
 
 Balancing public safety with the need to preserve civil rights is perhaps the most challenging part of police work these days, he said, and one that he confronted during his time here. He tried to involve community members and activists such as James Johnson, a local National Action Network president, in the process to help increase understanding of policing and strengthen bonds with citizens, he said. 
 
 “You have to reduce violence and keep the community safe, but you have to do it in such a way that you don’t alienate the people you are serving,” Zumalt said. “That is the core and the most difficult thing to achieve in policing today.” 
 
 The Scott shooting “is going to damage that relationship and make it even more difficult to achieve that balance,” Zumalt said. 
 
 When Driggers, a veteran law enforcement officer and former police chaplain, took over after Zumalt’s retirement in early 2013, Summey said his Christian approach to policing was what the city needed. The soft-spoken chief, who has a penchant for meeting detractors with hugs, set out to win over critics and invite them into his office to share their views. He visited crime scenes, oversaw an effort to place officers in every school and started a Powder Puff football program to give teen girls something positive to do. 
 
 But Johnson, the activist whom Driggers’ predecessor once tried to work with, said the chief had not thoroughly addressed allegations of racial profiling or dealt with a perception that the city’s officers “will stop you, lock you up and shoot you.” 
 
 “Driggers really just took up where Zumalt left off; he may just be doing it in a different way,” Johnson said Wednesday. “What his department needs is to be rebuilt from the bottom to the top. That’s how he’s going to get that confidence from the community.” 
 
 It remains to be seen how much goodwill and patience Driggers’ efforts will earn the city in the wake of the shooting. The chief’s voice has quivered this week, and he occasionally appeared on the verge of tears as he addressed local and national news media. He often drew on his faith. 
 
 “I have been praying for peace, peace for this family and peace for this community,” he said Wednesday after he and the mayor visited with Scott’s loved ones. “I will continue to stand on that as I strive to protect and serve.” 
 
 People in the neighborhoods he serves, though, are clearly shocked. And angry. 
 
 About 200 protesters amassed Wednesday morning in front of City Hall, the first organized rally since the video came to light. Members of Black Lives Matter Charleston, a grassroots group that formed after police-involved deaths in Missouri and New York, had figured that the day might come when the national conversation on the use of deadly force hit home. 
 
 Signs thrust into the air were emblazoned with messages of “back turned, don’t shoot” and “stop racist police terror.” 
 
 “I’m here on behalf of every father in this country, in this nation, that’s saying I’m tired of seeing this weekly, daily,” protester Calvin Bennett said. “The good cops know the bad cops. If you’re a good cop, do something about that.” 
 
 The rally ended with protesters blocking nearby Mall Drive for 15 minutes. Some angry motorists yelled at them from their cars. But one got out to hug and link arms with the demonstrators. 
 
 Charleston County Sheriff Al Cannon, himself a former North Charleston police chief, said the delicate balance between civil rights and public safety is made even more difficult against the backdrop of Ferguson, Mo., and in the age of social media and the 24-hour news cycle. 
 
 But in regard to the investigation in North Charleston, Cannon said, the process has shown to be valid. “It’s working here,” he said, “and it’s not working to satisfy anyone in particular. It’s working to satisfy justice.” 
 
 'A miracle' 
 
 Some local community members have lauded Summey and Driggers for acting so quickly to fire Slager and condemn his actions when the video of the killing surfaced. 
 
 Both of them also attended the protest Wednesday. Summey said the city offered a consolation to the officer’s wife, who is in her eighth month of pregnancy, by continuing to pay for her health insurance. 
 
 Bill Saunders, a longtime civil rights activist who spent years documenting alleged police abuses as head of the North Charleston-based Committee on Better Racial Assurance, said he was stunned by the pair’s swift condemnation and pledge to seek justice. Saunders once had so little faith in the police that he issued an alert to young black men in 2006, warning them not to drive at night lest they encounter an officer. 
 
 “What happened right now with this police officer being charged, it really is a miracle,” he said. “And I think one of the most impressive things to come out of this all is the position the mayor and chief of police have taken.” 
 
 David J. Thomas, a professor and former police officer who serves as a senior research fellow with the Washington, D.C.-based Police Foundation, said the public is generally willing to accept that police are human beings and subject to flaws. If goodwill exists between the chief and his community, they are more likely to give him the benefit of the doubt going forward. 
 
 If not, tensions could continue to build, he said, and the city runs the risk of attracting people from outside the area who could ramp up the volume and intensity of the demonstrations. 
 
 To stop that before it happens, observers and residents said prosecutors must also vigorously pursue the murder charge that Slager faces. Ninth Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson vowed to pursue a grand jury indictment, likely next month, and let the public know about every court date. 
 
 'Moment like this' 
 
 But investigators also must answer lingering questions. 
 
 They must determine what Clarence Habersham, the first backup officer to show up at the shooting scene, saw when he got there. 
 
 Slager had chased Scott to the secluded area near Remount Road and Rivers Avenue after he said he stopped Scott for a broken brake light about 9:30 a.m. Saturday. A young man who happened to be there started filming, and he told NBC News on Wednesday night that the pair were locked in a struggle on the ground. 
 
 “They were down on the floor before I started recording,” Feidin Santana of Hanahan told NBC News. “The police had control of ... Scott. Scott was trying just to get away from the Taser. You can hear the sound of the Taser ... before I started recording.” 
 
 The video does not show if Scott ever gained control of the Taser, but he appeared to slap something from the officer’s hands. 
 
 Slager, who said he felt threatened because Scott had taken the device, fired eight .45-caliber bullets from his Glock 21. Five of them plunged into Scott’s body. In Slager’s radio communications that local and state agencies released Wednesday after the newspaper pointed out that they were public record, the officer said that Scott had been shot in the chest and the buttocks. 
 
 All the bullets, though, hit Scott from behind, Charleston County Coroner Rae Wooten said in a statement. 
 
 The video showed the officer jogging back to an object that had fallen to the ground during the struggle. Slager dropped it near the body, but the footage also showed him later picking up something and attaching it to his duty belt. Habersham, a black officer, was standing near Slager. 
 
 In protests Wednesday, residents cried out for the police chief to answer their questions about the video, and they balked when the city’s mayor asked for quiet so he could answer journalists’ questions. “Our community member died,” they chanted, “not the media’s.” 
 
 Ed McClain, a retired pastor who has lived in North Charleston for all of his 75 years, was in the crowd. He had been encouraged by progress in the relationship between the police and the community. Getting body cameras would be another step in the right direction, he said. 
 
 “But then there’s a moment like this,” McClain said, “when the trust is torn away.” 
 
 William Pugh, a junior at Academic Magnet High School, said it’s impossible to live in a world where people don’t feel safe, and Scott’s killing makes it difficult to see the police in a good light as protectors of the community. 
 
 “Being an African American young man, I cannot even describe what it’s like to know that events like this happen,” he said. “We have to change the system. We have to do something. And we have to stop letting these events happen.” 
 
 Christina Elmore, Brenda Rindge and Melissa Boughton contributed to this report. Reach Andrew Knapp at 937-5414 or twitter.com/offlede. ||||| “I have watched the video, and I was sickened by what I saw,” Eddie Driggers, the North Charleston police chief, told reporters Wednesday at an emotional and often chaotic news conference that protesters repeatedly interrupted. Asked whether the proper protocols had been followed, Chief Driggers said, “Obviously not.” 
 
 At the news conference, at North Charleston’s City Hall, there were pointed questions about when, and if, first aid had been provided to the victim, and if Officer Slager’s version of events had ever been in doubt before the video emerged. “There are questions that I have in my mind that I can’t answer right now,” Chief Driggers said. He and Mayor R. Keith Summey said they were limited in what they could discuss as a state investigation continued. 
 
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 Chief Driggers said all of the department’s police officers would soon be required to wear body cameras. City officials said the department — which, according to a 2007 survey, was 80 percent white, though the city is 47 percent black — had sought to recruit more black officers but had struggled to find candidates. 
 
 Unlike officials in Ferguson, who were criticized for taking a pro-police stance immediately after Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot to death by a white officer in August, officials in North Charleston have sought to calm tensions; offered condolences to the victim’s family; made no attempt to publicly defend the officer; and said they handed the investigation over to the state, though they were not obligated to do so, to ensure an impartial and independent inquiry. The department will also provide a police escort for Mr. Scott’s funeral on Saturday. 
 
 “That’s the right thing to do,” Chief Driggers said of handing the investigation to the state. 
 
 It is not clear how the case might have unfolded without the video. 
 
 In an interview with NBC News on Wednesday, the man who videotaped the shooting, Feidin Santana, said he had seen Officer Slager and Mr. Scott struggling on the ground before the shooting began. “I remember the police had control of the situation,” Mr. Santana said. “He had control of Scott, and Scott was trying just to get away from the Taser.” Mr. Santana, who offered the video to Mr. Scott’s family, said the decision to charge Mr. Slager with murder was “something no one can feel happy about.” 
 
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 But, Mr. Santana said of Mr. Slager, “He made a bad decision,” and “you pay for your decisions in this life.” 
 
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 Officer Slager stopped the driver of a Mercedes-Benz for a broken taillight, according to police reports. As soon as the officer stopped the car, the reports say, Mr. Scott fled and Officer Slager chased him into a grassy lot that abuts an auto shop. The officer fired his Taser, a stun gun, but it did not stop Mr. Scott, according to police reports. In the reports and in news coverage, Officer Slager said he felt threatened and fired when the driver he had stopped tried to overpower him and take his Taser. 
 
 But Anthony Scott, the eldest of three brothers and two years older than Walter, said he never believed that. He described his brother as a “friendly, loving father who got along with everyone,” adding that he sang, played drums and participated in community theater. 
 
 When Mr. Scott, who had a long arrest record, mostly for failing to pay child support or show up for court hearings, was pulled over for the traffic violation, he called his mother to let her know. “I guess he did that because of the outstanding child support warrant,” Anthony Scott said. “He probably thought he was getting arrested.” 
 
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 The mother sent her grandson, Walter’s nephew, to check it out. The nephew was on his way to choir practice, and the location was just down the street from his church. The nephew called the family to let them know “something didn’t look right.” 
 
 When Anthony Scott arrived at about 11:30 a.m., he found out that emergency medical personnel had been there and left, which he knew was a bad sign. He held out hope that Walter had been taken away in a police cruiser. 
 
 He soon learned that was not what had occurred. 
 
 “I saw the chaplain,” he said, “and I thought, ‘This is not happening.’ ” 
 
 At that point, people in the area were saying that the police version of events was that Mr. Scott had grabbed the officer’s Taser and there had been a struggle. Anthony Scott did not believe it for a second. 
 
 He thinks his brother, who was employed as a forklift operator, ran the first time from the police because of the warrant, and ran again because he had been hit by the Taser. 
 
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 But it turned out that the information that mattered most was on the phone of the stranger. 
 
 Mr. Scott and Mr. Santana made a gentleman’s agreement after viewing the video on Sunday. They would wait another day to see if there was any need to release it: If the police stuck to the struggling-for-the-Taser story, then Mr. Santana would give the video to the family, despite his trepidation that the officer would come after him. 
 
 “I had to hold my breath and let him go,” Mr. Scott said. 
 
 By Sunday night, the family had made contact with an Atlanta lawyer who was experienced in cases involving police misconduct. The lawyer, L. Chris Stewart, got in his car and drove five hours to Charleston, arriving after 2 a.m. 
 
 On Monday, the statements from the Police Department had not changed. “It was obvious that we didn’t even have to ask him for it,” Mr. Scott said. “He was still hesitant, but he gave it to us.” 
 
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 Mr. Stewart gave the video to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, which had taken over the investigation. He said he was still in awe of what Mr. Santana had done, saying “he feared for his life.” 
 
 “I knew this family would never get justice, and this guy just hands us justice,” Mr. Stewart said. “He handed us justice.” 
 
 Mr. Stewart said that without the video, the authorities would not have moved as quickly to charge the officer. But he also said there were so many signs that it was a problematic shooting that even without the video, the officer would most likely have faced immense scrutiny. “One thing they couldn’t deny or get around was that they had a victim with five holes in his back,” Mr. Stewart said. 
 
 Not long after the video was released, Officer Slager’s lawyer, David Aylor, quit. He did not respond to a message seeking comment. 
 
 In an email on Wednesday, the officer’s new lawyer, Andrew J. Savage III, said the defense team had begun its own investigation of the shooting. “As we focus in on the facts, we will probably have more to say, but it is far too early for us to be saying what we think,” Mr. Savage said. “Slager’s previous counsel fell into that trap, and we have no intention of doing our client further harm.” 
 
 Thom Berry, the spokesman for the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, which is investigating the shooting, said the agency was conducting interviews and a battery of forensic exams. Mr. Slager was interviewed by detectives Tuesday afternoon. 
 
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 “We have a very active and ongoing investigation,” Mr. Berry said. “We have interviewed and are continuing to conduct interviews, not only with Michael Slager. We have also interviewed other law enforcement officers and anyone else who may have information. We are still in process of gathering information from as many sources as we can.”
– With protests gaining steam, the city of North Charleston is trying to stay aggressive in its reaction to a white police officer's fatal shooting of an unarmed black man: Officer Michael Slager, who already has been charged with murder, has been fired from the force, the mayor said today. Mayor Keith Summey also announced that every police officer in the city will wear body cameras from now on, reports the Post and Courier. "I have watched the video and was sickened by what I saw," said Police Chief Eddie Diggers of footage of the shooting taken by a bystander. As he spoke at a press conference, the AP reports that protesters interrupted him with chants of "no justice, no peace." "It looked like he was trying to kill a deer or something, running through the woods," Walter Scott Sr., father of the slain Walter Scott, tells NBC. Though Slager has been fired, the city will continue to pay his health insurance for a while because his wife is eight months' pregnant. Meanwhile, the Daily Beast reports that the attorney who initially represented Slager dropped him as a client as soon as video emerged of the shooting—but he's leaving it for others to connect the dots. "I can't specifically state what is the reason why or what isn't the reason why I'm no longer his lawyer," says David Aylor. "All I can say is that the same day of the discovery of the video that was disclosed publicly, I withdrew as counsel immediately."