Dr. Ben Carson, a potential Republican presidential candidate, on Wednesday condemned the shooting of an unarmed black man by a white South Carolina police officer.
“It’s horrible to see an execution take place in the street like that,” Carson told Buzzfeed News.
“Certainly that policeman was too quick to do it. I don’t know if you can always generalize in a situation like that but certainly that officer was wrong,” Carson said when asked if police are sometimes too quick to use their guns. “And I think it’s so obvious that he was wrong — that this provides an excellent opportunity for law enforcement personnel across the country to really come out and condemn this. And if they do that tells us a lot. And if they don’t that tells us a lot.”
North Charleston, S.C., Patrolman Michael Thomas Slager was charged with murder on Tuesday after a video appeared to show him shooting an unarmed black man, Walter Scott, in the back multiple times.
Police said that Slager used his stun gun on Scott numerous times before using his gun. Slager claimed he felt threatened by Scott and that Scott had tried to take his stun gun, according to police.
