Walter Scott Had Planned a Cookout for the Day He Was Shot by a Police Officer
— -- South Carolina police shooting victim Walter Scott and his passenger were looking forward to a cookout they had planned for later in the day when Scott was shot, the passenger’s attorney tells ABC News.
Pierre Fulton, who has been identified as the passenger in Scott’s car on the morning of April 4 when Scott was pulled over for a broken tail light, had known Scott for the past four or five years, becoming better friends when they started working together several months ago.
Fulton’s attorney, Mark Peper, said the pair knew each other casually from the neighborhood, then started commuting together and that’s when they started to get to know one another.
"Walter being the type of guy he was realized that Pierre was having to take the bus home," Peper told ABC News. "He said, 'No man, I have room, hop on in.’"
In the days leading up to the fatal police altercation, where then-police officer Michael Salger chased and shot Scott multiple times, Scott and Fulton had been talking about having a cookout at Scott’s house that Saturday afternoon.
The two men met for breakfast at a Hardee’s and then Scott drove them to a local church that has a weekly food-drive where Fulton picked up a bag of food, Peper said.
"This was just your typical Saturday morning... kind of out and about," Peper said. "The goal was to drop Pierre’s bag off at his house, which they did. And then Pierre was to ride with Walter over to Walters’s house to have a cookout. Unfortunately, they saw blue lights and we all know how that ended."
Fulton could not see the shooting but did hear Slager’s shots. Peper said that his client does not know why Scott ran from the vehicle during the traffic stop.
“What’s frustrating, everybody rightfully so wants to know why. So does Pierre. Pierre does not know why Walter ran,” Peper said.
Peper said the shooting has had "an extremely large effect on [Fulton’s] mental health."
"He is torn up. He is a mess," Peper said. "He hasn’t been able to talk to anybody about this."
Fulton has been interviewed by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, who has been handling the investigation into the case, but Fulton has chosen not to speak publicly except through his lawyer.
Slager, the now-fired police officer who has been charged with murdering Scott, has not yet had to enter a plea. Slager has had an addition to his legal team, with Sean Kent joining Slager’s previously-hired attorney Andy Savage. They have chosen not to comment on the case until they complete their own investigation.
