Listen: Officer Who Shot Walter Scott In The Back Caught On Tape Laughing About Adrenaline Rush

South Carolina patrolman Michael Slager, who without a brave citizen’s cell phone video would not have been arrested for the murder of Walter Scott, has been caught on tape laughing about the adrenaline rush minutes after the shooting.

On April 4, as the world now knows, South Carolina police officer Michael Slager pulled Walter Scott over for a faulty tail light. Minutes later, Scott would be shot in the back, dead, by Slager, with the patrolman claiming self defense.

Thanks to the cell phone video of a brave bystander, Slager was arrested for the killing, and fired. 

The Guardian’s Jon Swaine has just obtained chilling audio of Slager speaking with a senior officer immediately after shooting Scott to death. In it, Slager is instructed and counseled on what to do. At one point, he can be heard laughing about the “adrenaline rush” the senior officer mentions.

The audio begins with Slager asking, “What happens next?”

“Once they get you there,” the senior officer tells Slager, “we’ll take you home. Take your crap off, take your vest off, kind of relax for two or three [days]. It’ll be real quick.”

“They’re gonna tell you you’re gonna be out for a couple of days and you’ll come back and they’ll interview you then,” the officer continues. “They’re not going to ask you any kind of questions right now. They’ll take your weapon and we’ll go from there. The last one we had, they waited a couple of days for an official interview — to sit down and say what happens.”

That itself is shocking. A police officer shots and kills and unarmed man, and his supervisors send him home without interviewing him on the record? If it were a civilian it would be an entirely different matter.

“By the time you get home, it would probably be a good idea to kind of jot down your thoughts on what happened. You know, once the adrenaline quits pumping.”

That’s when Slager laughs.

“Oh yeah, it’s pumping.”

Listen:

Playing devil’s advocate, one might point out that Slager didn’t initiate the adrenaline comment, but he did laugh at it. Maybe his supporters would say it was a nervous laugh. But there was absolutely in that audio not an ounce of remorse.

 

Image by Charleston County Sheriff’s Office
Hat tip and transcript: Salon