The family has previously stated it wasn’t about race.
Via The State
Walter Scott – the black driver fatally shot while running away from a white police officer during a traffic stop – was remembered at his funeral Saturday as a gentle soul who fell victim to an act of racism.
Hundreds of mourners crowded into W.O.R.D. Ministries Christian Center for a two-hour service in memory of Scott, a father of four and Coast Guard veteran whose death sparked outrage as another instance of a white law enforcement officer fatally shooting an unarmed black man under questionable circumstances.
The Rev. George Hamilton, a minister at W.O.R.D. Ministries, told the overflow crowd as Scott’s funeral ended that the shooting “was an act motivated by overt racism,” and that the officer who shot him, Michael Slager, was a disgrace to the North Charleston Police Department.
“We will not indict the entire law enforcement community for the act of one racist,” Hamilton said. […]
Scott was driving a 1991 Mercedes that he bought from a neighbor and was headed to an auto-parts store when he was stopped, his brother Rodney Scott said. Police said he had a broken tail light. Video from the police car’s dashboard camera shows Slager asking Scott for his license and registration, then heading back to his cruiser before Scott gets out of the car and runs.
Scott’s relatives have said they suspect he fled Slager out of fear of being jailed again over missed child support payments.
At the time he was stopped, Scott, a father of four who worked as a warehouse forklift operator, owed more than $18,000 in child support and court fees, according to Charleston County records. He last paid child support in 2012 and a bench warrant for his arrest was issued in early 2013. Scott had been in jail three times since 2008.[…]
After the service, Clyburn said he hoped Scott’s death would act as a wake-up call on the state of race relations in the United States.
“I think this is a catalyst to get people to face up to the fact that we’ve got problems in this country,” Clyburn said. “I think this exposed something that is already there.”