From what's known so far, it's hard to find any justification for the actions of former North Augusta Public Safety Officer Justin Craven.
The 25-year-old officer's use of lethal force against an elderly and unarmed Edgefield man last year not only seemed avoidable, but it appears to be the result of someone acting recklessly and essentially above the law.
Craven allegedly fired five shots that killed 68-year-old former mechanic Ernest Satterwhite following a low-speed chase from North Augusta's city limits to Satterwhite's Edgefield County home. The shots were fired through Satterwhite's driver's-side door as he sat in his car that was parked in his own driveway. Craven has already dodged an indictment for voluntary manslaughter - a punishment that carries a maximum sentence of 30 years behind bars. Eleventh Circuit Solicitor Donnie Myers clearly pursued such a charge because he felt it had merit, but an Edgefield County grand jury declined to indict Craven on those charges. The grand jury instead indicted him on just one count of official misconduct in office, which is a misdemeanor.
Now, after further investigation by the state's top law enforcement agency - the S.C. Law Enforcement Division, or SLED - Craven is also facing a separate and distinct felony charge of discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle, a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
The timing of this new charge comes on the heels of the widely publicized shooting incident that resulted in the death of Walter Scott at the hands of Officer Michael Slager of the North Charleston Police Department. While that case has received much more national attention, the outrage in the Satterwhite case should ring locally, as well. In the North Augusta incident, this is actually the second attempt at justice and is the right step forward. According to SLED spokesman Thom Berry, the agency considers a case still open and ongoing until the matter is heard in court or until the prosecutors make the determination that there is either no charge to bring or investigators are instructed to close a case. There are clearly more steps to be taken in this instance.
Policing is certainly a difficult job and the legal process is still unfolding. However, North Augusta is carrying an added risk to its image by keeping Craven employed with the City after reassigning him last September from the Public Safety division headed, by Capt. John Thomas, over to the City's building standards department. North Augusta and Edgefield County did pay a $1.2 million settlement to Satterwhite's family, but they've also been essentially outright exempt from all of the negative publicity and civil unrest that places such as Ferguson, Missouri, and North Charleston have incurred after similar incidents.
After being arrested on Tuesday, Craven is now free after posting a bond of $20,000. The case now remains in the hands of the 11th Circuit. It's important to keep in mind that this was a shooting of an unarmed victim, which is very rarely warranted. The use of such force requires the officer to have probable cause that the subject presents an imminent threat either to the officer's life or a bystander's life. That doesn't appear to be the case here.
Officers are supposed to be tasked with serving and protecting their communities. In this instance, it's almost impossible to accept that Craven was even coming close to fulfilling that duty.