A tragic situation in South Carolina, as it turns out, apparently has a connection to the world of college football.
Saturday morning, a white North Charleston, South Carolina, police officer shot and killed a 50-year-old black man following a traffic stop. A cellphone video of the shooting surfaced Tuesday, leading to Officer Michael Slager being charged with the murder of Walter Scott.
From NBC News.com:The video, which was first obtained by The New York Times, picks up after the stop. Slager is seen shooting at Scott eight times as he runs away in a vacant lot. Scott drops to the ground after the last shot and Slager walks over calmly and is shown handcuffing Scott’s arms behind his back. Other police officers and later EMS tried to administer CPR but Scott died at the scene, according to an incident report. The video provided to The New York Times does not show those efforts.
The officer said the suspect took his Taser and that he feared for his life.
“Shots fired. Subject is down. He grabbed my Taser,” Slager says in a call to dispatchers.
In a tweet posted to his Twitter account Tuesday night, Ole Miss defensive lineman Fadol Brown, a Charleston, SC, native, claimed that Scott was his stepdad, lashing out at the police officer who he says "[shot] him down like a dog.”
In July of 2013, Brown transferred from FIU to Ole Miss. After sitting out the 2013 season to satisfy NCAA transfer rules, Brown was a part of the Rebels’ line rotation in 2014.
Our thoughts, prayers and condolences go out to Brown for his loss.
UPDATED 2:12 p.m. ET: In a statement, Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze, among other things, clarified the relationship between Fadol Brown and Walter Scott.
Here's Freeze's full statement on Brown pic.twitter.com/F5jD8CtZfX
— Riley Blevins (@Riley_Blevins) April 8, 2015