COLUMBIA, S.C. – A South Carolina state trooper's dashboard
video shows an unarmed driver being shot just seconds after he was stopped for
a seatbelt offense — and the trooper, who was fired last week, has now been charged
with assault.
As Levar Jones cried in pain
waiting for an ambulance, he repeated one question: "Why did you shoot
me?"
Jones' painful groans and
then-Trooper Sean Groubert's reply — "Well you dove head first back into
your car" — were captured by the camera.
Groubert's boss, state Public
Safety Director Leroy Smith, called the video "disturbing" and said
"Groubert reacted to a perceived threat where there was none" as he
fired the officer Friday.
The 31-year-old former trooper
is charged with assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, a felony
that carries up to 20 years in prison. He was released after paying 10 percent
of a $75,000 bond.
The dashboard camera video was
released by prosecutors Wednesday night after they showed it at Groubert's bond
hearing.
Jones was stopped Sept. 4 as he
pulled into a convenience store on a busy Columbia road. With the camera
recording, Groubert pulls up without his siren on as Jones is getting out of
his vehicle to go into the store.
"Can I see your license
please?" Groubert asks.
As Jones turns and reaches back
into his car, Groubert shouts, "Get outa the car, get outa the car."
He begins firing before he has finished the second sentence. There is a third
shot as Jones staggers away, backing up with his hands raised, and then a fourth.
From the first shot to the
fourth, the video clicks off three seconds.
Jones' wallet can be seen
flying out of his hands as he raises them.
Groubert's lawyer, Barney
Giese, said the shooting was justified because the trooper feared for his life
and the safety of others. Police officers are rarely charged in South Carolina.
In August, a prosecutor refused to file criminal charges against a York County
deputy who shot a 70-year-old man after mistaking his cane for a shotgun during
an after-dark traffic stop.
Groubert is white and Jones is
black. Neither state police nor the FBI keep detailed statistics on the races
of people in officer-involved shootings.
Much like the recent police
shooting of a black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, the racial aspect of the
South Carolina shooting bothers state Rep. Joe Neal, an African-American
lawmaker who has spoken out against racism in law enforcement for years.
"You are doing exactly
what the police officer asked you do to and you get shot for it?" said
Neal, D-Hopkins. "That's insane."
Neal said he doubts the trooper
would have been charged without the video. South Carolina has nearly 300 police
agencies, and many smaller forces don't have dashboard cameras.
"If it had been the
trooper's story versus his story, I'm not sure anything happens," Neal
said.
Jones is recovering after being
shot in the hip. He released a statement last week saying he hopes his shooting
leads to changes in how police officers treat suspects.
"I thank God every day
that I am here with a story to tell and hope my situation can make a
change," Jones said.
He and his lawyer have not
spoken publicly since Groubert was charged Wednesday.
Groubert first worked for the
Highway Patrol from September 2005 to September 2009. After going to work for
the Richland County Sheriff's Office, he returned to the state agency in July
2012.
This isn't the first time
Groubert fired his service weapon. In August 2012, Groubert and another trooper
chased a man who drove away from a traffic stop and fired at the suspect after he
shot first, according to the Highway Patrol. The suspect was convicted of
attempted murder and is spending 20 years in prison.
Groubert was awarded the
agency's Medal of Valor Award for his actions in protecting the public.
So far in 2014 in South Carolina,
police have shot at suspects 35 times, killing 16 of them, according to the
State Law Enforcement Division. The number of officer-involved shootings has
been steadily increasing over the past few years, with 42 reported in 2013.
