Officer Charged in Walter Scott Shooting Released on $500,000 Bail

The former South Carolina police officer charged with the April murder of 50-year-old Walter Scott has been released from jail on $500,000 bond, reports CNN.

Yesterday afternoon, a Charleston judge ruled that Michael Slager would remain under house arrest until his October 31 trial date. He is prohibited from contacting Scott’s family.

On April 4, Slager pulled Scott over for having a broken taillight. Scott fled the vehicle—family members say that he owed back child support—and ran into an empty lot. Bystander video shows Scott running from Slager when Slager opened fire, shooting Scott five times. Slager was fired from the force and charged with murder.

Everything You Need to Know About the Fatal Shooting of Walter Scott

A judge denied Slager bond in September, citing that he was a flight risk and a danger to the Charleston community. However, a judge reversed the decision yesterday, arguing that Slager would spend a lengthy amount of time behind bars before his trial date.

“Looking at the film I saw, every time I look at it, it makes me cry,” Scott’s father, Walter Scott Sr., told CNN affiliate WCSC in response to the judge’s decision. “When I go down to the graveyard, the only thing I see there is a pot sticking in the ground with flowers in it…If you let [Slager] out, he’s going to go home and look at his wife and children.”

CNN reports that Slager’s trial has been delayed because the case’s prosecutor is also trying Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old who killed nine parishioners at Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church in June.