Washington---A chilling video captured the final moments of Walter Scott's life. Empty handed, he runs from a police officer who pulls his gun and fires eight shots.
This footage, which follows spate of other cases of officers killing unarmed civilians, has some accusing US police of using excessive force and getting away with it.
After white officer Michael Slager shot at Scott -- striking him five times -- the African American father of four crumples to the ground.
Slager rushes over and handcuffs him as he breathes his last, his face in the grass.
Though there are no national statistics on how many people die at US police hands each year, Human Rights Watch said that out of more than 2,700 police-involved deaths deemed "justifiable" by authorities between 2005-2011, just 41 officers were charged.
According to US law, the use of deadly force by police is justifiable if a suspect poses a credible threat to the officer or the public.
Police can also sometimes use deadly force on a fleeing suspect if they think he has committed a crime and is likely to escape.
However, each state's law differs, and there are 18,000 disparate law enforcement agencies in the United States.
Slager had argued he felt threatened, but after the video was released Tuesday, the officer was charged with murder and later fired from the force, a rare punishment for an officer.
"This appears to be an out-and-out execution. He just shot this man in the back, shot at him eight times," argued Randolph McLaughlin, law professor at Pace University.
For him, training officers -- including in race relations -- is crucial, since they make split-second decisions in high-stress scenarios.
"If we don't train officers properly, then innocent people will be killed. And we see a rash across the country of officers shooting," McLaughlin told AFP.
The combination of inadequate training and racial bias, he said, creates a "toxic stew."
Civil rights lawyer Michael Haddad said police are often trained to use their guns more readily than in the past.
"Police officers are trained to shoot sooner rather than later to avoid even the slightest risk to themselves no matter how great of a risk the police pose to the public," said Haddad, who is also the president of the National Police Accountability Project.
"They receive much less training about when it is appropriate and lawful to shoot," he added.
Scott's death comes in the wake of a string of killings by police, including the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, which sparked sometimes violent protests across the country.
And in July, African American father-of-six Eric Garner, 43, died after being held in a police chokehold for several minutes. The incident was also caught on tape, and Garner is heard saying "I can't breathe" several times.
AFP
