SUMMERVILLE, S.C. — The death of a black man shot in the back while fleeing a white police officer was the act of a racist cop, a minister told hundreds who gathered Saturday for the funeral of Walter Scott.
“All of us have seen the video,” said the Rev. George Hamilton, the minister at W.O.R.D. Ministries Christian Center, to an overflow congregation. “There is no doubt in my mind, and I feel that Walter’s death was motivated by racial prejudice.”
Authorities have not said whether race was a factor in the shooting.
Scott, the 50-year-old father of four, was a Coast Guard veteran whose death sparked outrage as another instance of a white law officer fatally shooting an unarmed black man under questionable circumstances.
The shooting, last weekend in North Charleston, took place after a traffic stop and was captured on a cellphone camera video by a man who was walking past.
About 450 people — including U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., the two black members of South Carolina’s congressional delegation — gathered in the sanctuary of the church where Scott had worshiped.
About 200 more people waited outside beneath the portico of the church or under umbrellas in the rain because the sanctuary had reached capacity.
Hamilton called Michael Slager — the officer involved in the shooting and who has been charged with murder and fired — a disgrace to the Charleston Police Department.
“This particular cop was a racist. You don’t tase a man and then shoot,” the minister said.
But he added “we will not indict the entire law enforcement community for the act of one racist.”
Scott was remembered as a gentle soul and a born-again Christian. “He was not perfect,” the minister said, adding that nobody is.
Scott’s family arrived in a fleet of three black limousines followed by several other vehicles. Dozens who were waiting outside held up their cellphones trying to capture the scene.
Clyburn said he hoped some good could come from the tragedy.
