White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday that the video showing a white South Carolina police officer fatally shooting an apparently unarmed black man was “awfully hard to watch.”
“I can tell you that the reaction from others that I’ve talked to around the White House today is that the video is awfully hard to watch,” Earnest said in a press briefing. “I think that is the kind of human response that we’ve seen from people across the country.”
Earnest said that while he hadn’t spoken with President Barack Obama about the video, he wouldn’t be surprised if the President had seen it already given the video’s prominence in the media.
He also pointed to the impact of the video on the case itself. After the video surfaced in the media, North Charleston Patrolman Michael Slager was charged Tuesday with the murder of 50-year-old Walter Scott. The city’s mayor announced the next day that Slager had been fired.
“I do think that is an example of how body cameras worn by police officers could have a positive impact in terms of building trust between law enforcement officers and the communities they serve,” Earnest said.
Watch below via CNN:
