Clarence Habersham, who was with Michael Slager during shooting, is being sued by another black resident who alleges police stomped on his face

The second policeman in the video showing Walter Scott’s killing by officer Michael Slager is being sued by another black resident in South Carolina, who alleges police stomped on his face while he was handcuffed and lying on concrete.



Clarence Habersham is among five North Charleston police officers named in a federal lawsuit brought by Sheldon Williams, who claims he was left with broken bones in his face after being assaulted.

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Williams, 47, alleges he suffered “severe pain for months after the attack” and that his face was left “so swollen that his left eye was barely visible”. He continues to endure “flashbacks and other post-traumatic stress symptoms”, he claims, and is seeking damages.

“In addition, [Williams] experiences a sensation of insects crawling on the left side of his face as a result of nerve damage,” the lawsuit alleges.

Habersham and attorneys representing the officers and police department did not respond to requests for comment. The department denied all Williams’s allegations in a past court filing and said he “told officers he had been in a fight earlier that week which left a facial abrasion”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest South Carolina police officer Michael Slager shoots Walter Scott in the back as he runs away. Officer Clarence Habersham can also be seen in the video. Link to video

Williams, who had a series of criminal convictions, was arrested at a Budget Inn hotel room in North Charleston on a warrant for armed robbery in November 2011. He pleaded guilty and is now about three and a half years into a 10-year prison sentence.

Habersham, 37, was the first officer to arrive at the scene after his colleague Michael Slager shot Walter Scott dead as Scott, 50, ran away from a confrontation in North Charleston last Saturday morning. Slager has been charged with murder. Habersham can be seen crouched over Scott’s body in cellphone video of the incident.

In the police incident report on the shooting, sergeant James Gann wrote that he “assisted officer Habersham with CPR and first aid”, and that they continued to administer CPR until an ambulance arrived. Sergeant Ron Webb wrote that he observed Habersham administering chest compressions to Scott.

Yet the released video footage does not show CPR being administered and the man who filmed it, Feidin Santana, has said he did not see this take place. Habersham’s own statement did not mention CPR or chest compressions, instead saying he applied pressure to the gunshot wounds.

Police chiefs suggested at a press conference on Wednesday that Habersham had used “lifesaving” techniques on Scott after pulling up his shirt. But a syncing of the video footage with police radio transmissions indicates Habersham was in fact locating the gunshot wounds.

Williams claims that despite not resisting arrest when he was found hiding under a bed in the November 2011 incident, the North Charleston police officers “pinned [him] to the concrete floor, trapping him within the bedframe, repeatedly stomping on his face and/or allowing other officers to stomp on his face while [he] was handcuffed.”

sheldon williams lawsuit Sheldon Williams’s lawsuit against five North Charleston police officers.

Edward Bell, an attorney for Williams, accused officers at North Charleston police department of operating a “cowboy culture” of “doing it their own way”.

“Police officers feel like they have the right to inflict punishment on somebody who doesn’t obey them,” said Bell. “They get this adrenaline going and they just can’t control themselves. It’s not every police officer, but it seems some of them can’t control it.”

Mary Grimes, another attorney for Bell’s firm, said Williams had stolen a tip jar containing about $500 from a female street food vendor a few days earlier, and was alleged to have had a knife. She said that regardless of his crime Williams did not deserve to be physically attacked.

“He did not resist, he was handcuffed quickly, yet the officers saw fit to stomp his face,” said Grimes.

Williams alleges his injuries were so severe that the detention centre to which he was taken by police refused to process him. Yet he was not taken to hospital for treatment for another two hours, he claims. There, Williams says, a police sergeant involved in the arrest told him “they would find a way to ‘make it right’ in reference to the stomping attack.” The police department deny all these allegations.

Doctors diagnosed Williams with three depressed fractures to bones in his face and other depressed bone fragments.

Williams is also suing medics who gave him medical attention at the Charleston County Detention Center, claiming that they did not follow clear instructions that the prisoner must see a surgeon and have his broken bones set.

“As a result of this delay and lack of treatment, [his] facial bones will now need to be broken and reset,” the lawsuit alleges. The medics deny any wrongdoing.

Bell said Williams could not specify what role Habersham played in the alleged attack. “He couldn’t see, as he was being kicked,” said the attorney. However Williams was certain Habersham was among the group of officers, said Bell.