The location where Walter Scott was murdered

Crime Scene Location in North Charleston, South Carolina

View Map • Skip To Address

The location where Walter Scott was murdered

This is the location where a police officer murdered Walter Scott.

It is situated in an empty lot at 5623 Craig Road in North Charleston, South Carolina.

Shooting

On the morning of April 4th, 2015, police officer Michael Slager stopped Scott's black Mercedes in the parking lot of an auto parts store on Remount Road.

Slager decided to make the stop after he noticed that a brake light on the back window of the vehicle wasn't working.

After speaking with Scott, the officer took his driver's license and returned to the patrol car so that he could run it through the system.

At that time, the 50-year-old owed unpaid child support—a predicament that had landed him in "debtors' jail" in the past.

Fearing that he was about to be arrested and sent back to jail again, he foolishly decided to jump out of his car and run.

Map
Scott was stopped in the parking lot of Advance Auto Parts, which is situated at 1945 Remount Road. The 50-year-old got out of his vehicle and ran while the officer was running his license through the system. It is believed that he was trying to avoid being arrested for unpaid child support. After running 200 feet south along Craig Road, he turned right. Feidin Santana, who filmed the shooting, was standing on an adjacent pathway that was just south of the lot.

When the officer saw Scott running away, he began to pursue him on foot.

During the short chase, Scott ran south along Craig Road before turning right and entering this empty lot.

Officer Slager eventually caught up to him on the western side of the lot, and the pair became involved in a physical altercation. Following a brief struggle, the officer's tazer fell to the ground, and Scott managed to break free and run away.

At that point, Slager pulled out his service weapon and fired eight shots at the fleeing man, five of which hit him.

5623 Craig Road
This Google Street View image of 5623 Craig Road was taken in November 2015—roughly seven months after the incident took place. The shooting occurred on the western side of the lot. We have highlighted the general area in red.

Murder

The incident was captured on video by a bystander named Feidin Santana, whom the officer didn't seem to notice. Santana's footage showed that Walter Scott was unarmed and running away when he was shot dead. It also showed Slager picking up his tazer from the pathway and dropping it beside the victim's body.

Feidin Santana
Feidin Santana recorded the shooting from this pathway. Initially, he was afraid to come forward with the footage, as he believed that Slager and the other officers who responded to the scene might seek retribution. At one point, he contemplated deleting the video. However, he eventually handed it over to a civil rights activist.

When the North Charleston Police Department reviewed the video, they decided to charge Slager with murder.

Video footage
The video footage showed that Scott had his back turned and was roughly 5–6 yards away when officer Slager decided to open fire.

His murder trial began in October 2016. However, the judge was forced to declare a mistrial three months later after the jury failed to reach a verdict.

Shortly before his second trial was due to begin, Slager agreed to plead guilty to federal charges of civil rights violations. Consequently, the state dropped its murder charge.

Clarence Habersham
Another officer named Clarence Habersham arrived at the scene shortly after the shooting. Although the officers reported that they performed CPR on Scott, the video footage proved otherwise. It also showed Slager picking up a tazer from the path and tossing it beside Scott's body.

In December 2017, the former officer was sentenced to 20 years in prison after a judge ruled that the "appropriate underlying offense" was second-degree murder.

Slager is currently incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution in Colorado. He will not be eligible for parole until August 2032.

Address

The address and the GPS coordinates for this location are as follows:

Address

5623 Craig Road, North Charleston, South Carolina, SC 29406, USA

Map

To view directions on how to get there, you can use the Google Maps shortcut below:

Google Maps

GPS coordinates

The latitude and longitude coordinates for the site are:

32.898099, -80.014961

Directions

The entrance to the lot is roughly 500 feet south of the intersection between Remount Road and Craig Road. It lies to the east of Charleston International Airport.

Details about the general area

North Charleston is a city on the southeastern coast of South Carolina.

This location belongs to the following categories:

Crime Scenes

Closest Locations

Other locations that are relatively close to this address:

The location where Brittanee Drexel was found

The location where Brittanee Drexel was found

Roughly 62 miles away.

Crime Location in Georgetown, South Carolina

The bridge where Mallory Beach died in a boating accident

The bridge where Mallory Beach died in a boating accident

Roughly 68 miles away.

Crash Site Location in Beaufort, South Carolina

The location where Camoflauge was shot dead

The location where rapper Camoflauge was shot dead

Roughly 108 miles away.

Death Location in Savannah, Georgia

The location where Dannette and Jeannette Millbrook were last seen

The location where Dannette and Jeannette Millbrook were last seen

Roughly 150 miles away.

Last Seen Location in Augusta, Georgia

View All (Map)