# SC Police shooting/murder, second officer question.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sc-police-shooting-murder-second-officer-question/717501>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [April 12, 2015, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sc-police-shooting-murder-second-officer-question/717501 "2015-04-12T17:15:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2015, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sc-police-shooting-murder-second-officer-question/717501/1 "2015-04-12T17:15:57Z")

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A lot of people are watching and following what is being done as response to this murderous abuse of power by a police officer. It appears to me that the planting of the tazer near the victim seems so ‘normal’ to be something regularly done.

What however about the second officer who obviously could not miss this planting of evidence, has anything been done about his behavior, or has he done the right thing and reported this? Is he on the hook for anything?

Link to NY Times w/ video:

> **[South Carolina Officer Is Charged With Murder of Walter Scott (Published 2015)](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/08/us/south-carolina-officer-is-charged-with-murder-in-black-mans-death.html?_r=0)**
>
> The North Charleston officer, who is white, had said Mr. Scott, an apparently unarmed black man, took his stun gun. But a video shows the officer firing at him eight times.

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**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2015, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sc-police-shooting-murder-second-officer-question/717501/2 "2015-04-12T17:27:21Z")

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I would imagine he would be considered a fairly credible witness of the events, which may well have something to do with the murder charges being filed…

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**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sc-police-shooting-murder-second-officer-question/717501/3 "2015-04-13T11:41:59Z")

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Ok, I guess what caught my attention was the planting of the evidence right in front of the other officer. Is this indicative of a expectation that fellow police officers will just allow such things as evidence planting? Is it a know thing that if you shoot someone drop a weapon near him, and no officer would bat a eye at it, or ever ‘recall’ that happening in court.

Or is the planting of evidence really a attempt to contain the evidence so as not to have it scattered and perhaps lost/taken by a passer by?

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**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sc-police-shooting-murder-second-officer-question/717501/4 "2015-04-13T12:11:31Z")

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I think it shows that the shooting officer freaked out, panicked, and completely screwed up, so he did the only thing he could to cover his ass, short of shooting everybody in sight and putting the gun in the victim’s hand.