The family of Walter Scott will get a settlement of $6.5 million from the city of North Charleston, the largest such payout in the recent high-profile killings of black men by police officers. 
 
 With members of Scott’s family seated in the audience, City Council unanimously voted Thursday to approve the settlement, which City Attorney Brady Hair called “the largest settlement for this type of case in the state of South Carolina,” adding that he feels it’s in line with settlements on similar cases nationwide. 
 
 Scott, 50, a black man, was shot April 4 by white North Charleston police officer Michael Slager. Cellphone video captured by a passerby showed the officer shooting Scott in the back. 
 
 Although the killing sparked protests at City Hall, there was no violence as there has been in other cities where similar incidents have occurred, such as Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore. City officials and family members credited the peaceful response of the public and the city’s swift action in arresting Slager with facilitating a settlement. 
 
 “We are very proud that we were able to settle a case of this magnitude without a brick being thrown, without a fire being set and without a lawsuit being filed,” said Hair. 
 
 North Charleston officials said they have been talking with Scott family lawyers for several months. 
 
 “We agreed ... to try to resolve the case without a lawsuit,” Hair said. “We had lots of open, honest, cordial discussions with them. We didn’t agree on everything but it was a very unique way of handling the situation. We’ve never done it like this before. ... but we felt that if we could come to a resolution without a lawsuit being filed, without depositions and without press coverage of every step both sides made, that it would be healthier for both the family and the city.” 
 
 Days after the Scott slaying, lawyers for the family said they planned to file suits against Slager, 33, for civil rights violation and wrongful death, but no suits were filed. During several meetings over the past few months, City Council has gone into closed session to receive advice from Hair on a potential lawsuit. 
 
 Slager was indicted on a murder charge in June, and in September Circuit Judge Clifton Newman denied bail, calling the evidence against Slager “persuasive.” 
 
 Anthony Scott, Walter Scott’s brother, said Thursday, “Though nothing can replace having Walter in our lives, the city of North Charleston’s historic actions ensure that he did not die in vain. This city sent a message loud and clear that this kind of reckless behavior exhibited by members of law enforcement will not and shall not be tolerated.” 
 
 The settlement also protects current or former city employees from being sued in the case. 
 
 “The Eric Garner case in New York and the Freddie Gray case in Baltimore really set the tone for the range of numbers that we thought was consistent with what was going on,” said Hair. “We think it is a really fair settlement and a good one. It’s a lot of money but we had to realistically face the fact that the potential for a very large verdict was there because of the video and because we have a police officer who is charged with murder.” 
 
 Asked how the parties arrived at a figure, Chris Stewart, a lawyer for the Scott family, said, “You have to be realistic. There is no way that this city could pay $50 million ... You can go to your corner being unrealistic and just fight with the other side, and at the end of the day also harm the city and innocent people that had nothing to do with the situation.” 
 
 Mayor Keith Summey said it was important for the city to acknowledge the harm done to Scott and his family. 
 
 “(Nothing) negates the fact that (Slager) shot the guy in the back and we’re wrong,” said Summey. “From Day 1, we have said, ‘When you’re wrong, you’re wrong,’ and there was no doubt in our mind that it was going to cost us. Even though I think we handled it completely appropriately, it was still going to cost us.” 
 
 The settlement will allow the family and the city to move on, Hair said. 
 
 “We think that it is a good resolution and a fair one,” Hair said. “This would have been the thing that we dealt with the next several years and that’s not fair to our citizens, not fair to our Police Department and frankly, not fair to the family.” 
 
 “It’s time to move on, bottom line,” said Police Chief Eddie Driggers. “It’s time to move on and do what people pay us to do — to serve and protect. We have 343 sworn officers trying to do what’s right by the citizens they serve.” 
 
 Stewart said he could not address how the money will be divided among family members, “but his (four) children will be taken care of.” 
 
 In addition, a portion of the settlement money will be donated to the Red Cross to aid flood victims, Anthony Scott said. 
 
 Talks are ongoing with the state Insurance Reserve Fund, but as of now, about $1 million of the settlement will come from the Insurance Reserve Fund and the rest will come from the city’s fund balance, which currently is about $18 million. It will not affect the city’s bond rating, Summey said. 
 
 “This entire situation has been almost a blueprint of how these situations should be handled,” Stewart said of the settlement. “They came to the table willing to talk, willing to work things out. They didn’t just give away $6.5 million. We had to fight, argue, battle, got at each other for a while, but peaceful resolution is always better.” 
 
 Justin Bamberg, a state representative who is also a Scott-family lawyer, said, “From start to this point, to hopefully a criminal conviction of the officer, we have set a prototype, the standard, for how these types of situations can be handled and should be handled, in that when you keep faith, when you respect one another ... things can work out.” 
 
 After the video was made public, Scott’s death became the focus of a nationwide discussion on police officers’ use of force against black men. The video showed Scott freeing himself from a struggle and running away as he was shot at eight times. 
 
 “The criminal process still has to run its course,” Hair said. “Getting this part of the matter behind everyone will help so that the criminal justice system can focus on that.” 
 
 Anthony Scott called the settlement a “bittersweet victory” and said the family will focus on the criminal trial. 
 
 “It is our hope that after a jury of his peers reviews the evidence, they’ll send an equally important message to law enforcement that there is no place for unnecessary violence against unarmed, fleeing individuals.” 
 
 Slager also is being sued by Julius Garnett Wilson, who has a history of drug arrests and a conviction for interfering with police, for allegedly shooting Wilson in the back with a Taser last year. The suit was filed in the wake of Scott’s shooting. 
 
 In July, New York City reached a $5.9 million settlement with the family of Garner to resolve a wrongful-death claim over his killing by the police on Staten Island a year earlier. The officer, Daniel Pantaleo, was not indicted in the case. 
 
 On July 17, 2014, two officers approached Garner, who was unarmed, and accused him of selling untaxed cigarettes. One of the officers used a chokehold to subdue Garner, and that hold, along with the compression of Garner’s chest by other officers who held him down, was cited when the medical examiner ruled the death a homicide. 
 
 Last month, the city of Baltimore approved a $6.4 million settlement with the family of Freddie Gray, who suffered a fatal spinal injury when the 25-year-old was handcuffed and shackled, but not buckled in, inside a police van in April. 
 
 Six officers charged in the case have pleaded not guilty and will stand trial on charges ranging from assault to murder. 
 
 In a case of an officer-involved shooting that went to trial recently, a federal jury last year awarded $97.5 million to the family of former Cottageville Mayor Bert Reeves. Reeves was fatally shot by a town police officer and the sum was settled earlier this year by both sides at $10 million. ||||| Officials in North Charleston, S.C., have reached a $6.5 million settlement with the family of Walter Scott, the unarmed black man whom a bystander video captured being shot in the back by a white police officer after fleeing a traffic stop on foot in April, according to the Scott family. 
 
 “It’s historic,” said Chris Stewart, an attorney for the Scott family. “It sets a good precedent for a city not tolerating this sort of behavior from police officers.” 
 
 Former police officer Michael Slager, who is charged with murder for shooting Walter Scott (Reuters/Randall Hill) 
 
 Scott’s death was one of half a dozen cases of unarmed black men being killed by police officers in late 2014 and early 2015 that sparked protests in dozens of cities and prompted new discussions of police transparency and reform. 
 
 “This is a very difficult period for the Scott family. I know they are glad to have this part behind them so their healing process can continue,” North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey said in a statement. “As a result of this tragedy, important issues have been discussed, not only in North Charleston, but around the country. Citizens have become engaged in this process and government officials are listening.” 
 
 He later added: “This settlement is a step in the right direction for the family, the city, the Lowcountry, and our state.” 
 
 The settlement comes after the City of New York agreed to pay $5.9 million to the family of Eric Garner, whose death after allegedly being put in a chokehold by an NYPD officer was captured on bystander video, and the City of Baltimore agreed to pay $6.4 million to the family of Freddie Gray, whose death in the back of a police transport van prompted murder charges for six officers. 
 
 North Charleston’s decision to pay Scott’s family rather than face a civil suit comes as Michael Slager, the officer who killed Scott, remains imprisoned while he awaits trial on murder charges. 
 
 [‘Look for justice.’ A shooting in South Carolina and the power of video] 
 
 If convicted, Slager faces 30 years to life in prison with no possibility of parole. Reached via email, Slager’s attorney Andy Savage refused to comment on the settlement. 
 
 So far this year, police officers have shot and killed more than 750 people, according to a Washington Post database tracking police shootings all year. There are just five cases this year that have resulted in charges for the officers involved, and in all but one of those cases video evidence was crucial to prosecutors’ decision to bring charges. 
 
 “This is a small victory,” said Anthony Scott, Walter Scott’s brother. “And as long as we win the war, and get a conviction for murder, we will be pleased and feel like we got justice.” 
 
 Related reads: 
 
 Thousands dead, few prosecuted: An investigation into police shootings 
 
 Fatal police shootings in 2015: An attempt to document a previously unknown number 
 
 Distraught People, Deadly Results: Officers often lack the training to approach the mentally unstable, experts say 
 
 Black and Unarmed: Unarmed black men are seven times more likely than whites to die by police gunfire ||||| 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
– The family of an unarmed black motorist shot in the back by a South Carolina police officer has been given a settlement that lawyers say is "historic"—and the biggest in recent cases of its kind. North Charleston's city council voted unanimously on Thursday to settle with Walter Scott's family for $6.5 million, the New York Times reports. A city attorney tells the Post and Courier that they're proud they could "settle a case of this magnitude without a brick being thrown, without a fire being set, and without a lawsuit being filed." He says the city took the $6.4 million settlement in the Freddie Gray case and the $5.9 million settlement in the Eric Garner case into account during negotiations. As part of the settlement, Scott's family has agreed not to sue the city or its employees, the Times notes. The city lawyer says that while the payment is large, there was the potential for "a very large verdict" if the case went to court because there's video of the shooting and former officer Michael Slager has been charged with murder. "It's historic," an attorney for the Scott family tells the Washington Post. "It sets a good precedent for a city not tolerating this sort of behavior from police officers." Anthony Scott, Walter Scott's brother, says the settlement ensures that Scott's four children will be taken care of financially, and a portion of it will be donated to the Red Cross to help flood victims in the state, the Post and Courier reports. (Slager is in jail awaiting trial for the April 4 shooting, and he says video of the incident doesn't tell the whole story.)