COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A small-town police officer in South Carolina was charged with voluntary manslaughter Wednesday for shooting and killing an unarmed man who led her on a high-speed chase and then tried to run from his wrecked car, investigators said.
Hemingway police Officer Cassandra Dollard, 52, was charged with voluntary manslaughter in the shooting early Sunday after she chased the driver 8 miles (13 kilometers) outside the limits of the town of 530 people.
Dollard tried to pull over Robert Junior Langley for running a stop sign and it turned into a chase where Langley was driving more than 100 mph (160 km/h), according to an arrest warrant from the State Law Enforcement Division.
Langley crashed his car in a ditch in rural Georgetown County and was trying to get out the passenger door when he was shot in the chest, agents said.
Dollard told investigators she feared for her life, according to the arrest warrant.
Investigators showed the family some dashboard camera footage of the shooting Wednesday morning, family attorney Bakari Sellers said at a news conference.
“They were able to hear him being shot unjustifiably. They were able to see him gargling blood and fighting for air,” Sellers said.
Langley, 46, didn't have any arrest warrants and made no action that would have led the officer to fear she was going to be killed, Sellers said. Langley and the officer were both Black.
“He rolled through a stop sign. Add him to the list of Tamir Rice having a toy gun,” Sellers said.
Langley, a father of 10 who just became a grandfather, worked at a local chicken processing plant, his family said.
“Junior wouldn’t hurt a flea — never would've. He was a good man, he worked and he took care of his children,” said Brenda Williams, a friend of the family.
Sellers said the investigation looked like the officer made poor and illegal decisions that cost a man his life.
“All because a cop was, one, out of her depth and, two, apparently not trained well or didn’t listen in training,” Sellers said.
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Jeffrey Collins, The Associated Press
