The overlooked passenger in the S.C. police shooting

On Friday, April 10th, writing about the shooting in South Carolina of an unarmed, fleeing black man by a police officer, I mentioned that -- for the first time in any media report I had seen -- that there had been a passenger in the car with Walter Scott, the man who was shot and killed.    This was about 5 days after the shooting.

But there was no information about this man, what he told the police about what he saw happen --- just nothing.    Now four days later, the existence of a passenger has been mentioned again.   In fact, on Monday night, one of the MSNBC news shows had some footage of the man standing outside Mr. Scott's car, being patted down by a police officer.

He did answer a couple of questions on the video, saying that he had no idea why Mr Scott took off running.   He did say, however, that "he did not deserve to die."   He would say no more because he had not yet been questioned by the police.

We're still left with the puzzling question of why this man's existence has been, if not covered up, at least almost ignored in police reports and the media.   It's almost seems like the police are trying to make his testimony seem unimportant.   'Nothing to see here, folks.   Move along.   Nothing to see.'

That arouses my suspicions.   Here is the only witness who presumably saw it all.   The young man who made the video didn't see the beginning of the encounter or any physical struggle;   he only filmed the chase and the shooting death and aftermath.    You would think his testimony would make him the star witness.

Perhaps the police didn't want a witness.

But let's think about time line.   The murder happened on Saturday.   It was not until several days later that the police had a copy of the video.   Until the video was revealed, they were treating it as a justifiable use of force, perhaps not eager to have a passenger suggest otherwise.   So that may be why he was initially treated casually and not mentioned to the media.

At this point, however, this man has to be the person of most interest to the police -- to find out what he knew about Mr. Scott and events leading up to the encounter;  and then the eye witness account of what he saw.

Stay tuned.

Ralph