South Carolina

Ex-officer to plead guilty in fleeing black motorist's death

Associated Press
Published | Updated

FILE - In this Monday, Dec. 5, 2016, file photo, former South Carolina police officer Michael Slager, right, walks from the Charleston County Courthouse under the protection of the Charleston County Sheriff's Department after a mistrial was declared for his trial in Charleston, S.C. Slager is pleading guilty to violating the civil rights of an unarmed black motorist he shot and killed during a 2015 traffic stop. A copy of the plea agreement obtained by The Associated Press Tuesday, May 2, 2017, also shows state prosecutors are dropping a pending murder charge against Slager. (AP Photo/Mic Smith, File) (The Associated Press)

FILE - In this Monday, Dec. 5, 2016, file photo, Defense attorneys Andy Savage, left, Don McCune, and Miller Shealy, right, sit around former North Charleston police officer Michael Slager at theCharleston County court in Charleston, S.C. Slager is pleading guilty to violating the civil rights of an unarmed black motorist he shot and killed during a 2015 traffic stop. A copy of the plea agreement obtained by The Associated Press Tuesday, May 2, 2017, also shows state prosecutors are dropping a pending murder charge in the death of Walter Scott. (Grace Beahm/The Post And Courier via AP, Pool, File) (The Associated Press)

Judy Scott raises her hands to praise God for justice for her dead son, Walter Scott, as other family members and the family's lawyer stand nearby during a news conference, Tuesday, May 2, 2017, in Charleston, S.C. Michael Slager, a white former police officer whose killing of an unarmed Walter Scott running from a traffic stop was captured on cellphone video pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal civil rights charges that could send him to prison for decades. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins) (The Associated Press)

Former South Carolina police officer Michael Slager is pleading guilty to violating the civil rights of an unarmed black motorist he shot and killed as he ran from a 2015 traffic stop.

A copy of the plea agreement obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday also shows state prosecutors are dropping a pending murder charge against Slager. The AP obtained the agreement from a lawyer familiar with the case who didn't want to talk publicly before it was finalized.

Slager was scheduled to appear in federal court Tuesday for motions ahead of his federal trial planned for later this month in the death of Walter Scott.

A bystander captured Scott's shooting on cellphone video, viewed millions of times.

Slager's first trial on state murder charges ended in a hung jury.