Michael Slager, the North Charleston, South Carolina, police officer charged with murder in the shooting death of an unarmed black man, faced an excessive violence complaint in 2013, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.
In what turned out to be a case of mistaken identity, Slager allegedly tased and violently arrested a man, Mario Givens, before releasing him with no charges. Givens filed a complaint, but the department dismissed it within weeks, saying an investigation "exonerated" Slager. The department is now reconsidering the complaint following Slager's arrest.
"If they had just listened to me and investigated what happened that night, this man might be alive today," Givens told the AP.
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