Analysis of police audio synced with video raises further questions about whether officers performed any CPR on Walter Scott after he was shot eight times

The police officer who shot Walter Scott radioed in to claim that Scott had “grabbed my Taser”, six seconds after firing his final shot, despite video suggesting the unarmed man was not in possession of the stun gun at any point, a Guardian analysis has shown.



Syncing police scanner audio with a shocking video – the eyewitness footage out of South Carolina which led to officer Michael Slager being charged with murder – raises further questions about whether either of two officers on the video performed any CPR on Scott as was previously claimed by police.

Analysis of the police radio shows Slager, the officer who shot at Scott eight times, making the radio call announcing the shots and alleging the Taser seizure, sounding frantic and breathless at the same time as he walks slowly towards Scott’s body.

“Shots fired. Subject is down. He grabbed my Taser,” the scanner audio from Slager states.

Officer Michael Slager dispatch audio from the Walter Scott shooting.

He reaches the body, handcuffs Scott who has his head down to the floor and walks back to the area where it appears an object was dropped and picks up an item from the ground.

At this point a second officer, now identified as Clarence Habersham, arrives on the scene and radios in. Slager then walks back towards the body and radios in stating: “I need to secure my vehicle”. At this point – over a minute after the last shot is fired – neither officer appears to have performed CPR on Scott.

Slager then walks and drops the item, which some have speculated is a Taser, next to Scott’s body.

At this point Habersham radios in to say he has detected gunshots to Scott’s chest on the right side. He then radios to say he has detected a gunshot wound to the buttocks. He appears to be pulling Scott’s T-shirt up at this point.

At a press conference on Wednesday North Charleston police chief Eddie Driggers said after watching the video he believed an officer had lifted Scott’s T-shirt to perform “some sort of life-saving procedure”.

But analysis of the video and audio suggests Habersham is actually identifying the gunshot wounds rather than performing any such procedure.

At the end of the video, over two minutes after the last shot is fired, Slager stands over Scott’s body and takes a pulse.

The combination of the video and audio footage shows that the encounter between Slager and Scott started about four and a half minutes before the scenes now seen on televisions around the world.

As Slager began stopping Scott at the intersection of Remount Road and Craig Road at about 9.35am, he radioed the dispatcher to say he was “coming up on a grey ... Mercedes”.

Bystander who filmed Walter Scott shooting: officer 'made a bad decision' Read more

Exactly three minutes later, Slager radioed again to announce he was chasing on foot down Craig, giving his dispatcher a basic description of Scott. “Black male, green shirt, blue pants,” he said.

About 25 seconds later a colleague radioed to say he was “en route” to assist. Ten seconds on, there was another message – possibly from the same officer – asking Slager (“223”) “What’s your direction of travel there?”

After he received no response, this officer asked Slager again: “Where you at now?” Eight seconds later, however, there was a clue to why Slager may not have been responding. In a burst of confused radio chatter, an officer can be heard shouting “on the ground!”

The dispatcher had asked all officers to ensure radio silence for matters apart from the Slager-Scott chase. Feidin Santana, a bystander who filmed the shooting on his cellphone, told NBC on Wednesday evening that the pair were struggling on the ground before he began recording.

Another 47 seconds pass before the supporting officer radioed again: “I’m at the pawn shop,” he said. “Where you at now?”

Just three seconds later – at 9.38am, almost five minutes after Slager announced that he was stopping Scott in his car – Slager was back on the radio. “223, shots fired,” he said. “Subject is down. He grabbed my Taser.”