NYPD official: Walter Scott "didn't pose a threat"
Warning: The video above contains graphic content.
A routine traffic stop in South Carolina became the latest in a series of controversial police shootings after video surfaced Tuesday of a white officer fatally shooting an apparently unarmed black man.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller said he learned in his training at the police academy in Los Angeles, "If somebody is running away, they don't pose a threat to you."
"If you have a fleeing suspect, and remember we don't have a fleeing felon here as far as we know, we have a fleeing guy with a broken tail light, you are supposed to chase that person down and use whatever force is necessary at that point," Miller, a former CBS News correspondent, said Thursday on "CBS This Morning."
Video captured Saturday morning showed Officer Michael Slager firing his gun eight times at Walter Scott as Scott ran away.
"If you're in a mall and somebody has shot 20 people and you confront them in the food court with a gun and they take a shot at you and then they turn and flee, that's a different consideration, because you can calculate in that that person, as they get away with that rifle, is going to shoot more people and that you need to shoot a fleeing felon in order to save others," Miller said.
This incident, he said, "is clearly not that situation."
In his initial incident report, Slager said he feared for his safety after Scott grabbed his Taser. Feidin Santana, the man who recorded the video, spoke to NBC News about what he witnessed and painted a different picture.
"I remember the police had control of the situation. He had control of Scott. And Scott was trying to just get away from the Taser," Santana said.
According to Miller, facts in a case can change as the story unfolds, but "not as dramatically as they did in this case."
"The first story is never right, because there's confusion, there's different perspectives," he said.
Recently, questions emerged about the behavior of other officers on the scene.
An incident report obtained by CBS News said up to seven other police officers arrived at the scene within minutes of the shooting.
"In society we have a compact and that is we ask the police to go in harm's way, to get hurt, to get killed, and in return for that, part of the compact is when they come back with their account of what happened, we give them the benefit of the doubt," Miller said. "I think this video reversed this tide very quickly."
South Carolina law enforcement officials told CBS News the conduct of other police personnel is also being investigated.
Miller also said while every case is different, "this is going to cast a pall for a time."
"People are going to come back to this video when they hear a police account of things and they're going to say, 'But what about that case?'" he said. "And I think that's going to cost police officers across the country."
Dozens gathered outside the North Charleston City Hall on Wednesday morning chanting "No justice, no peace" in protest these latest events.
That same morning, the North Charleston Police fired Officer Michael Slager. He remains locked up, held without bail.
The city's police chief admitted he found the incident disturbing.
"I have watched the video and I was sickened by what I saw," Eddie Driggers said.