A South Carolina State Trooper has been charged in connection with the shooting of an unarmed man at a gas station that seem pretty outrageous: (emphasis mine)
On Sept. 4, Groubert pulled over Levar Edward Jones for a seatbelt violation in Columbia, South Carolina, and subsequently shot the unarmed man in the hip. In newly released video, Groubert is heard asking Jones for his license. As Jones reaches into his car, the officer is seen moving quickly while pointing his gun and shouting, “Get out of the car!” He then fires four shots at Jones as he falls backwards away from the car with his hands in the air. Groubert cuffs the injured driver, who can be heard asking, “What did I do, sir?” Groubert then asks Jones if he was hit. “Why did you shoot me?” Jones asks, to which the former officer responds he shot because “you dove head-first back into your car.” The South Carolina Department of Public Safety fired Groubert last week. A South Carolina prosecutor asked the U.S. Attorney’s Office to review the case. The charges carry a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison, according to NBC station WIS.
Here’s the dashcam video:
Quite obviously, there would have been no charges, and Groubert probably never would have been fired if there had not been video of this incident that clearly shows the officer shooting first and asking questions later under circumstances in which his life clearly wasn’t in danger. Imagine if Officer Wilson had had a working dashboard camera, or better yet, a body camera, when he met Michael Brown on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri on August 9th.
