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Michael Slager in a Charleston, S.C., courtroom on Sep. 11, 2015. The former police officer is charged with murdering Walter Scott during a traffic stop.
Leroy Burnell – Pool/Getty Images
South Carolina authorities are investigating a suspicious fire Friday night at the house of former North Charleston Police Officer Michael Slager, the Charleston Post and Courier reports.
A neighbor put out the flames, which caused minor damage to the vacant home. Slager has not lived there since his arrest on murder charges for killing Water Scott. A video captured him gunning down Scott as he fled.
Hanahan, S.C., Police Capt. Michael Fowler said two people were seen running from the house. Authorities found an incendiary device, like a Molotov cocktail, at the scene. They are now investigating the incident as an arson attack.
“People of goodwill can differ about what should happen in this case, but people of goodwill do not start fires intended to intimidate or terrorize,” said Slager’s attorney, Andy Savage. “Justice in this case will be dispensed by the members of a jury, and by no one else.”
Prison officials released Slager Monday on $500,000 bail, which triggered a number of protests.
James Johnson, the South Carolina president for the civil rights group National Action Network, said people should not assume that protesters are responsible, pointing out that there have been no reports of violence at the demonstrations.
He added that the former officer “has a lot of enemies.” However, Johnson calls for the arrest of any protester who may have set the fire.
Read more at the Charleston Post and Courier.
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