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Seattle leaders and activists react to S.C. shooting; call for action here

SEATTLE — Seattle civil rights leaders and activists are calling for justice after a video was released Tuesday showing a South Carolina police officer shooting and killing a black man running away from him.

The New York Times posted the video Tuesday.

North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey revealed on Tuesday that Officer Michael Slager is being charged with murder.

The video shows Slager firing several times at 50-year-old Walter Scott.

“What if there was no video? What if there was no witness or hero as I call him, to come forward?” said Scott family attorney L. Chris Stewart.

"We can't get my brother back and my family is in deep mourning for that, but through the process (of) justice has been served,” said Anthony Scott, Walter Scott’s brother.

Slager said the traffic stop Saturday morning began because Scott has a broken tail-light.

Through an attorney, David Aylor, he said he felt threatened and that Scott tried to grab his stun gun.

Aylor removed himself as Slager’s attorney on Tuesday.

“This was execution,” said Gerald Hankerson, president of Seattle King County NAACP. “I refuse to believe that if that would have been a white man, the results would have been the same.”

Hankerson said he is glad South Carolina acted swiftly, but he said it is only a step toward justice in what he calls a “broken” system.

“I’m calling on Pasco to do the same thing, out there when they killed a man a couple months ago,” he said. “And I’m asking all police departments, when you catch this activity, you should be held accountable. Clearly, this was absolute murder.”

On Feb. 10 in Pasco, officers shot and killed Antonio Zambrano Montes after they said he was throwing rocks at them.

People protested in Seattle, just as they had after the shooting in Ferguson, Missouri.

Emma Kaplan, who was one of those protestors, is organizing what she calls a walk out on April 14th.

She said protestors are encouraged to leave school or work to join activists at Westlake Park at 2 p.m.

Kaplan, like Hankerson, is calling for more than just charges; rather, they both want convictions.

“Indict, jail and convict,” she said. “Send these killer cops to jail.”

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