© 2024 University of Missouri - KBIA
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Man Who Filmed S.C. Shooting: 'You Pay For Your Decisions In This Life'

The man who filmed a white police officer in South Carolina shooting an unarmed black man as he was running away says he turned over the video to Walter Scott's family because it deserved to know the truth.

"I thought about his position, their situation. ... If I were to have a family member that would happen [to], I would like to know the truth," Feidin Santana told NBC News.

Officials said Santana's video was essential to their decision to bring charges against officer Michael Slager, who had given a different account of events and has been fired.

Santana said no one can feel happy about something like this, because both men have families.

"But [Slager] made a bad decision and you pay for your bad decision in this life. I think Mr. Scott didn't deserve this," Santana said. "There were other ways to arrest him."

Here's video via NBC News:

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.