A South Carolina police officer has been charged with murdering a black man after video surfaced showing the officer shooting the man in the back as he ran away.

The video, recorded by a bystander, shows officer Michael Slager firing his weapon eight times at 50-year-old Walter Scott who falls to the ground.

Scott's family members spoke to media shortly after the charges were announced: 

"if there wasn't a video, would we know the truth? Or would we have gone with what was reported earlier? But we do know the truth now."

The incident happened Saturday after Scott was pulled over for driving with a broken taillight.

According to police reports, Slager said that Scott had taken his stun gun, but in the video, Scott does not appear to be armed while fleeing.

State investigators decided to charge Slager with murder after reviewing the video.  

The FBI and U.S. Justice Department have begun a separate investigation.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.