Man who filmed police shooting of unarmed black man 'thought about erasing the video' out of fear
"As you can see in the video, the police officer just shot him in the back," said Feidin Santana, who used his cellphone to film the shooting.
"I knew right away, I had something on my hands," he told NBC.
As a result of the recording, which in just 24 hours has been seen around the world, the police officer, 33-year-old Michael Slager, was charged with murder on Tuesday and could face a sentence of up to life in prison or the death penalty.
Slager allegedly shot Walter Scott, 50, repeatedly in the back after stopping him for driving a Mercedes Benz with a broken brake light in North Charleston, South Carolina.
Santana said that after filming the incident, he immediately feared for his own safety.
"I felt that my life, with this information, might be in danger. I thought about erasing the video and just getting out of the community, you know Charleston, and living some place else," the 23-year old said in a separate interview with MSNBC. "I knew the cop didn't do the right thing."
In the video, Slager is seen firing fires eight times at Scott, who has turned and run from him. Slager then handcuffs the dying man. Santana, however, saw what the video didn't capture.
"Before I started recording, they were down on the floor. I remember the police (officer) had control of the situation," he said.
"He had control of Scott. And Scott was trying just to get away from the Taser (stun gun). But like I said, he never used the Taser against the cop."
Santana - a barber who's originally from the Dominican Republic - initially showed the video to Scott's brother, Anthony, at a vigil and later sent it to South Carolina newspaper, The Post and Courier. Slager might not have been charged without that footage.
"What if there was no video?" Slager's family attorney Justin Bamberg wondered during a news conference.
Several killings of unarmed black men by police officers in recent months have sparked sometimes violent protests across the US, with demonstrators alleging racism in the nation's police departments.
Officers have rarely been charged in the shootings, however - even when the incidents were recorded.