The city of North Charleston, South Carolina, agreed Thursday to pay $6.5 million to the family of Walter Scott, the unarmed African-American man who was shot in the back by a white police officer in April, settling a potential lawsuit after six months of negotiations.
Scott, 50, died after he was shot April 4 as he was running away from former police Officer Michael Slager, who fired eight shots at Scott in a confrontation recorded on a bystander’s video. He remains held without bond on a charge of murder.
The settlement “ensures that he will not have died in vain,” Scott’s brother Anthony told reporters Thursday night at a joint news conference with Mayor Keith Summey after the City Council voted unanimously to approve the settlement.
“We will now focus our efforts on the criminal trial of Walter’s killer,” he said.
An unspecified part of the settlement payment will be donated to Red Cross relief efforts after floods devastated the state this week, Anthony Scott said. Summey thanked Scott’s family for helping keep North Charleston calm in the tense aftermath of the shooting and said he was “glad the city and the family were able to reach a settlement without the necessity of a lawsuit.”
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